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RATIONAL DEFENCE

OF THE

MAR 131912

— ^

BY ISAAC WATTS, D. D

WIT>Hi A PREFACE

BY A. ALEXANDER, D. D

NEW-YORK:
JONATHAN LEAVITT.

boston:
CROCKER & BREWSTER

1831

Wm. D'Hart, Printer, i
Princeton, JV. J. $

*-

PREFACE

No writer among the English dissenter*
has acquired more deserved celebrity than Dr.
Watts. His works are numer >us and on vari-
ous subjects; but most of them are calculated
to be useful. His style is remarkable for its
simplicity, perspicuity, and smoothness. It is
pure English, and intelligible by the meanest
capacity. But that which is the distinguish-
ing excellence of his theological writings is,
the vein of evangelical piety which runs
through them. It is evident to every impar-
tial and intelligent reader, that Dr. Watts was
a sincere lover of truth, and that he had
thought profoundly on the subjects discussed
by his pen. On some points, it is true, he
adopted peculiar opinions, different from the
common belief; and in his dissertations on
some of the mysterious doctrines of our holy-
religion, he indulged his fertile mind in spe-
culations which to us appear too bold, and
by which his own mind seems to have been

IV.

somewhat bewildered. But on all practical
subjects, I scarcely know an author who has
expressed evangelical truth in a more per-
spicuous and felicitous manner. And I con-
ceive that it is a real loss to the Christian
community that some of the most valuable
productions of this author's pen, are now
not in circulation, or known only to those
who possess copies of his whole works.
Some of these were intended especially for
the common people, and ought to be again
given to the public, in a separate form, and
in cheap and convenient editions.

The small work which is here presented
to the reader, was, never before, it is be-
lieved, printed separately ; but when pub-
lished originally by the author, formed a
part of a series of *' Discourses on various
Subjects," in two volumes, 12mo., and has
since been comprised in the collection of his
works, of which several valuable editions
have been published. These short and pithy
discourses, on a very important subject, were
no doubt demanded by the state of society
when they were first written ; but they con-
tain nothing which adapts them more to thai

V.

age, than to the one in which our lot is cast.
Indeed, there never has been a period, since
the reformation, when infidelity assumed
a bolder front, or more freely vented her
blasphemies against God and his Holy Word,
than the present. And such is the menacing
appearance of this deadly evil in our most
populous cities, that it is a duty incumbent
on every friend of Divine Revelation to lend
his aid, to check the torrent of error, which
will be sure to spread desolation through all
its course. Books of very different kinds
may be highly useful in this cause. Men
who are unconvinced by one sort of argu-
ments, may yield to those of another kind ;
and often when the elaborate and learned
treatise is thrown aside unopened, the brief
and popular argument of a few pages will
be read with profit. The reader, however,
must not expect, in this small volume, a for-
mal, historical view of the evidences of divine
revelation : — this was not the object of the
author. It was rather intended to furnish an
answer to some of the more common and popu-
lar objections which sceptics make to revealed
religion, and to exhibit the richness and free

VI.

ness of the gospel of the grace of God ; and,
moreover, to explain the terms on which
sinful men may become partakers of its in-
estimable blessings. In my opinion, the
work is calculated to be eminently useful to
those who will seriously and impartially
peruse it, not only by removing doubts and
objections which relate to the truth of Chris-
tianity, but also by unfolding the true nature
of the plan of salvation, and by making a
salutary impression on the heart. And that
it may, by the blessing of God, be useful to
many, is our sincere prayer.

If this little volume should be favorably
received, so as to indemnify the publisher for
his expense and labor, he will immediately
put to press " Christian Morality," by
the same author, which, though entirely dis-
tinct in its subject, was originally published
in the same volume with the Discourses
which are now presented to the public.

Before I conclude this preface, I will, for
the satisfaction of such as have not attended
to the subject, extract the character of Dr.
Watts as a writer, from the lives of the
Poets, by Doctor Johnson.

VII.

"Every man, acquainted with the common
principles of human action, will look with
veneration on the writer who is at one time
combating Locke, and at another making a
catechism for children in their fourth year.
A voluntarv descent from the dignity of sci-
ence is perhaps the hardest lesson that humi-
lity can teach.

" As his mind was capacious, his curiosity
excursive, and his industry continual, his
writings are very numerous, and his subjects
various. With his theological works I am
only enough acquainted to admire his meek-
ness of opposition, and his mildness of censure.
It was not only in his book but in his mind
that orthodoxy was united with charity.

" Of his philosophical pieces, his Logic has
been received into the universities, and there-
fore wants no private recommendation: if he
owes part of it to Le Clerc, it must be consi-
dered that no man who undertakes merely to
methodise or illustrate a system, pretends to
be its author.

11 In his metaphysical disquisitions, it was
observed by the late learned Mr. Dyer, that
he confounded the idea of space, with that of

Vlll.

empty space, and did not consider, that though
space might be without matter, jet matter
being extended, could not be without space.

"Few books have been perused by me with
greater pleasure than his Improvemf.ntof the
Mind, of which the radical principles may in-
deed be found in Locke's Conduct of the
Understanding, but they are so expanded
and ramified by Watts, as to confer upon him
the merit of a work in the highest degree use-
ful and pleasing. Whoever has the care of in-
structingothers,may be charged with deficien-
cy in his duty if this book is not recommended.

"I have mentioned his treatises of Theology
as distinct from his other productions : but the
truth is, that whatever he took in hand was,
by his incessant solicitude for souls, converted
to theology. As piety predominated in his
mind, it is diffused over his works ; under his
direction it may be truly said, Theologice Phi-
losophia ancillatur, philosophy is subservient
to evangelical instruction ; it is difficult to read
a page without learning, or at least wishing,
to be better. The attention is caught by indi-
rect instruction, and he that sat down only to
reason is on a sudden compelled to pray.

IX.

" It was therefore with great propriety thatr
in 1728, he received from Edinburgh and
Aberdeen an unsolicited diploma, by which
he became a Doctor of divinity. Academical
honors would have more value, if they were
always bestowed with equal judgment.

"He continued many years to study and to
preach, and to do good by his instruction and
example; till at last the infirmities of age
disabled him from the more laborious part of
his ministerial functions, and, being no longer
capable of public duty, he offered to remit
the salary appendant to it ; but his congrega-
tion would not accept the resignation.

" By degrees his weakness increased, and at
last confined him to his chamber and his bed ;
where he was worn gradually away without
pain, till he expired, Nov. 25, 1748, in the
seventy -fifth year of his age.

" Few men have left behind such purity of
character, or such monuments of laborious
piety. He has provided instruction for all
ages, from those who are lisping their first
lessons, to the enlightened readers of Mai
branche and Locke ; he has left ueither cor-
poral nor spiritual nature unexamined; he has

X.

taught the art of reasoning, and the science
of the stars.

"His character, therefore, must be formed
from the multiplicity and diversity of his
attainments, rather than from any single per-
formance ; for it would not he safe to claim
for him the highest rank in any single denomi-
nation of literary dignity ; yet perhaps there
was nothing in which he would not have ex-
celled, if he had not divided his powers to
different pursuits.

" As a poet, had he been only a poet, he
would probably have stood high among the
authors with whom he is now associated.
For his judgment was exact, and he noted
beauties and faults with very nice discern-
ment; his imagination, as the Dacian Bat-
tle proves, was vigorous and active, and the
stores of knowledge were large by which
his fancy was to be supplied. His ear was
well tuned, and his diction was elegant and
copious. But his devotional poetry is, like
that of others, unsatisfactory. The paucity
of its topics enforces perpetual repetition, and
the sanctity of the matter rejects the orna-
ments of figurative diction. It is sufficient for

XI.

Watts to have done better than others what
no man has done weli."*

Although the name of Dr. Watts has been
exposed to no small obloquy, since his death,
on account of some of his opinions; jet it has
fallen to the lot of few men to be so highly

* This insinuation of Dr. Johnson, that devotional poetry
is incapable of high excellence on account of the paucity of
its topics, and its rejection of the ornaments of figurative
diction, has always appeared to me unjust, and calculated
to make a wrong impression. We want no other proof of
its incorrectness, than the devotional poetry contained in the
Bible. But, is it true, that all devotional poetry m our
language is "unsatisfactory?" No one wilJ make the
assertion who has a taste tor compositions or this kind. To
strengthen the opinion here expressed, I will cite a passage
from an "Essay" oi the amiable and pious poet, James M >nt-
o-omery, which is prefixed to his "Christian Psalmist."

"There is an idle prejudice founded upon the misappre-
hension of a passage in Dr. Johnson's Life of Waller, and a
hint of like nature in hi> life of Watts, that sacred subjects
are unfit for poetry, nay, incapable of being combined with
it. That their nature, majesty and grace, cannot be heigh-
tened by any art of embellibhment, is most freely admitted;
but that verse, as well as prose, may be advantageously as-
sociated with whatsoever things are true, honest, just, pure,
lovely, and of good report, in religion, we have the evidence
of the Scriptures themselves, "in tne law of Moses, and in
the Prophets, and in the Psalms," when they testify con-
cerning Christ and his sufferings, in strains the most exalted
that poesy can boast. We have evidence to the same effect,
in many of the most exquisite and perfect compositions of
uninspired poets, both in our own and in other countries." —
" We are not without proof, that hymns may be as splendid
in poetry, as they are fervent in devotion."

Xll.

honored in the church. The praises of a
million of Christians are offered to God on
every Lord's day, in the words composed by
him. His Psalms and Hymns have been in-
strumental in aiding the devotions of a great
multitude of saints, who have already finished
their earthly pilgrimage ; and will continue
to be read and sung with delight, as long as
the English language shall be spoken by
Christians. And who is there, that has been
nurtured in the admonition of the Lord, who
does not recollect with pleasure, Dr. Watts'
Divine Songs for infant minds? There
is, therefore, less danger of the name of Dr.
Watts being forgotten in our churches, than
that of any other uninspired man. He may
truly be styled the "sweet singer of our
Israel," to whom we all owe a debt of gra-
titude : or rather I should say, we owe many
thanks to God for the gifts bestowed on his
servant, by which he has been rendered so
eminent an instrument in promoting the edifi-
cation of the church. And we trust, that the
thousands who experience, daily, the benefit
of his sacred poetry, will not find his prose
writings unworthy of their regard.

A. ALEXANDER.

Princeton, .7V. J. }
March, 28, 1831. S

A RATIONAL DEFENCE OF THE GOSPEL:
ORj

COURAGE IX PROFESSING CHRISTIANITY.

Rom. i. 16.

/ am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for
it is the power of God unto salvation to every
one that believeth.

PART FIRST.

Shame is a very discouraging passion of the
mind: it sinks the spirits low, it enfeebles ail
the active powers, and forbids the vigorous ex-
ecution of any tiling whereof we are ashamed.
It was necessary therefore, that St. Paul should
be endued with sacred courage, and raised
above the power of shame, when he was sent
to preach the gospel of Christ among the Jews
or the heathens, to face an infidel world, and
to break through all the reproaches and ter-
rors of it. / am a debtor, says he, v. 14. to
the Greeks and to the Barbarians, that is, to
the learned and unlearned nations, to the wise
and the unwise : < I have a commission from

14 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

Christ to publish his gospel among all the na-
tions of men, and I esteem myself their debtor
until I have delivered my message. And
though Rome be the seat of worldly power
and policy, the mistress of the nations and so-
vereign of the earth, where I shall meet with
opposition and contempt in abundance, yet I
have courage enough to preach this doctrine
at Rome also, for I am not ashamed of the gos-
pel of Christ'

My friends, this is an age wherein the gospel
of our Redeemer meets with much contempt
and opposition. There are many in a baptized
nation, and who have been brought up in the
christian belief and worship, that- begin to be
weary of Christ and his religion ; they are en-
deavouring to find blemishes and defects in
this sacred gospel, and in that blessed word of
God that reveals this grace to us. The divine
truths that belong to this gospel meet with
mockery and profane reproach from deists and
unbelievers. I may call it therefore a day of
rebuke and blasphemy. God grant we may
never become a land of heathens again! —
Those of us that believe this gospel from the
heart, have need of courage to maiatain our pro-
fession of it, especially in some companies and
conversations. We should prepare ourselves

OF THE GOSPEL. 15

to encounter the reasonings of unbelievers, as
well as harden our faces against their ridicule.
Letus therefore meditate on this sacred text, that
each of us may pronounce boldly the words of
this great apostle, I am not ashamed of the gos-
pel of Christ.

Now that our mediations may proceed regu-
larly on the present theme of discourse, let us
consider,

I. What the gospel of Christ is, that we may
not mistake it.

II. What is included in this expression, I am
not ashamed of it.

III. What there is in this gospel that might
be supposed any way to expose a man to
shame. And I shall take occasion under this
head to give particular answers to some of the
most important objections that might be made
against the gospel, and show that there is no
just reason to be ashamed of it.

IV. I shall consider what is that general an-
swer to all objections ; that universal guard
against sinful shame which is contained in my
text, and which will bear out every christain
in his faith and profession of the gospel of
Christ, viz. that it is the power of God to the
salvation of every one who believes.

Y«. I shall draw some proper inferences.

16 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

1. What is the gospel of Christ 1

I answer in general, it is a revelation of the
grace of God to fallen man through a Mediator,
Or, it is a gracious constitution of God for the
recovery of sinful and miserable man from
that deplorable state into which sin had brought
him, by the mediation of Christ ; or, in the
words of my text, it is the power of God, of
his powerful appointment for the salvation of
every one who believes.

The word gospel, in the original, elayfs\m
signifies good news or glad tidings. And surely,
when a sinner, who is exposed to the wrath of
God is sensible of his guilt and danger, it must
needs be glad tidings to him to hear of a way
of salvation and an all-sufficient Saviour.

This constitution of God for our salvation has
had various editions, if I may so express it, or
gradual discoveries of it, made to mankind,
ever since Adam first sinned, and God visited
him with the first promise of grace before he
turned him out of Paradise.

But the last and most complete revelation of
this gospel was made by the personal ministry
of our Lord Jesus Christ, and more especially,
by his apostles, when his own death, resurrec-
tion and exaltation, had laid the complete (bun-,
dation for it.

of tp:e gospel.

17

From the books of the New Testament, there-
fore, we may derive this larger description of
the gospel of Christ.

It is a wise, a holy, and gracious constitution
of God for the recovery of sinful man, by send-
ing his own Son Jesus Christ into the flesh,
to obey his law which man had broken, to make
a proper atonement for sin by his death, and
thus to procure the favor of God and eternal
happiness for all that believe and repent, and
and receive the offered salvation ; together with
a promise of the Holy Spirit to work this faith
and repentance in their hearts, to renew their
sinful natures unto holiness, to form them on
earth fit for this happiness, and to bring them
to the full possession of it in heaven.

It might be proved that this is the sense and

substance of the gospel of Christ, from many of

the prophecies of the Old Testament, and the

ceremonies and figures of the Jewish church,

as well as from a variety of citations from the

writings of the evangelists and apostles. Yet

there have risen some persons (I mean the Sc-

cinians and their disciples) in the last age, and

in this also, who call themselves christians,

but they so curtail and diminish the gospel of

Christ, as to make it signify very little more

than the dictates and hopes of the light of na~
b 2.

18 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

ture, viz : that if we repent of our sins pastv
and obey the commands of God as well as we
can for the future, Christ, as a great prophet,
has made a full declaration that there is pardon
for such sinners, and they shall be accepted
unto eternal life : and all this without any de-
pendance on his death as a proper sacrifice, and
with little regard to the operations of his holy
Spirit.

Now f need use no other argument to refute
this mistaken notion of the gospel, than what
may be derived from the words of my text, viz :
that St.. Paul expresses it with a sort of em-
phasis, and as a matter of importance, that he
was not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. — ■.
Whereas, if this had been all the substance of
the gospel, he had no reason to be ashamed of
it, either among the Jews, or the heathens. —
The Jews had a knowledge of forgiveness upon
repentance, and a belief of it long before Christ
came :. and the heathen philosophers would
have readily received it, as a thing very little
different from what their natural reason might
lead them to hope for, though it could not
fully assure them of it, they would never have
sought to expose and ridicule the preaching of
St. Paul as mere babbling, and calLed him a
setter forth of strange gods.

OF THE GOSPEL. 9

But on the other hand, if we suppose him
publishing the glorious doctrine which I have
described, there was something in this so
strange to the ears of the heathens as well as
of the blinded Jews, that might well be sup-
posed to awaken their opposition and rage ;
and, therefore, it was a great point gained
with him, when he had courage enough to
maintain such a gospel, and to say, I am not
ashamed of it.

This leads me to the second thing proposed.

II. What is included in these words, I am
not ashamed of the gospel] To this I answer
under these five heads.

1. I am not ashamed to believe it as a man,

2. I am not ashamed to profess it as a chris-
tian.

3. I am not ashamed to preach it to other? as
a minister.

4. I am not ashamed to defend it and contend
for it as a good soldier of Christ.

5. I am not ashamed to suffer and die for it as
a martyr.

1. c I am not ashamed to believe this gospel as
a man. My rational powers give me no secret
reproaches. My understanding and judgment
do not reprove and check my faith. I feel no
inward blush upon the face of my soul, while I

20 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

give the fullest assent to all these truths, to
this scheme of doctrine, to this heavenly con-
trivance and system of grace. A rational man,
especially one who has been bred up in learning,
should be ashamed to believe fables and follies ;
but I believe all this gospel and am not
ashamed. My own reason approves it, and jus-
tifies me in the persuasion and belief of such a
gospel as this is.'

c I believe it with so firm and unshaken a faith,
that I venture all my own eternal concerns
upon it, I lay all the stress of my hopes of a
blessed immortality on it. My soul rests here,
and I am not ashamed of my resting place : —
I am not ashamed of my Saviour, and the
method of his salvation. I am persuaded my
hopes shall never disappoint me.'

Surely, if the gospel had been so very irra-
tional a thing as some men pretend it to be,
St. Paul being so rational and wise a man, would
have been ashamed to believe it. But ' I believe
it,' says he, 'and am not ashamed. I do not
think it casts any just reflection upon my ra-
tional capacities, or my learned education at
the feet of Gamaliel, for me to give a full as-
sent to this gospel.

2. < I am not ashamed to profess it as a Chris-
tian. I am ready to tell the world that I believe

OP THE GOSPEL.. 21

it, and I take all occasions to let the world know
it. I am coming to profess this gospel at Rome,,
and am not ashamed : I have owned it before
my own countrymen the Jews, already, where
it has been most reproached. I have been tell-
ing the Gentiles what the gospel of salvation is,
and I long to see you at Rome, that I may tell
you what my belief is in the gospel, and may
hear how far you have believed, and may be
comforted by the mutual faith both of you and
me: Rom. i. 12. I shall be glad to tell you
what doctrines I venture my own soul upon,
and shall be willing to hear from you whether
you venture your souls upon the same doctrine
or no ; and shall rejoice to find we are both in-
terested in one salvation.'

3.. 6 T am not ashamed to preach it to others
as a minister ; that is, to invite others to believe
it. It is a communicable good, and I am sent
to diffuse it, nor am I ashamed of my commis^
sion. See 2 Tim. 12* 13.. Our Lord Jesus
Christ has abolished death, and brought life
and immortality to light by the gospel, and has
appointed me a preacher, and an apostle to the
Gentiles : I preach the gospel and am not
ashamed, though I have suffered for it. I ven-
ture my soul upon it unto the last great day, and
I bid thee, Timothy, as a preacher unto others,

%%

A RATIONAL DEFENCE

to hold fast the same form of sound words which
thou has learned of me. I long to teach the
whole world this faith and this doctrine, there-
fore I am a debtor to the Greeks and Barba-
rians ; I would make others partakers of the
same hope. Would to God, that not only thou,
Agrippa, but all those that hear me, were not
only almost, but altogether such as I am, ex-
cept only these bonds, these sufferings which I
endure for Christ's sake :' Acts xxvi. 29.

4. ■ I am not ashamed to contend for it as a
good soldier of Christ ; to defend it when it is
attacked, and to vindicate the cause of my
Lord and Master. Where it is assaulted I en-
deavor to secure it, though with many re-
proaches from the carnal prejudices of man-
kind. I oppose them all, for they oppose my
Saviour and his cross, and I build my everlast-
ing hopes there. I am set for the defence of
the gospel of Christ : Phil. i. 17> and I will con-
tend earnestly for the faith once delivered to
the saints.' And he gave us an instance of it,
that when Peter, who was an apostle, seemed
to diminish some of the glory and the liberty of
of the gospel, he withstood him to the face :
Gal. ii. 11. < There shall no man silence me,
or stop my mouth, when I am preaching a
crucified Saviour, and when I express my faith

OF THE GOSPEL. 2o

in the liberty and latitude of the gospel of
Christ. For if I durst withstand an apostle
under his criminal concealments, and in his di-
minution of the honor of this doctrine, surely
I dare oppose all the world besides.'

5. Lastly, <I am not ashamed to suffer and die
for it as a martyr. Load me with reproaches,
ye Jews, my countrymen, and load me with
chains, ye magistrates of Rome ; of none of
these am I ashamed or afraid, but with all bold-
ness I am always ready that Christ should be
magnified in my life, or my death: Phil. i. 14,
20. And as for my friends that are full of sor-
row lest Paul should be sacrificed for the faith
of Christ, Why mourn ye and break my heart ?
I am not only ready to be bound, but to
die for the sake of Christ. I count nothing
dear to me, no nor my life precious to myself,
that I may finish with joy the course of my mi-
nistry of this gospel, that I may testify the
grace of my God:' Acts xx. 24, and xxi. 13.

I might add also, that St. Paul intends and
means more than he expresses by a very usual
figure of speech, « I am not ashamed of it, that
is, I glory in it, I make my boast of it ; if there
be any doctrine worth boasting of, it is the gos-
pel of Christ. If I have any profession to glory
in, it is that I am a Christian. Once I was a

£4 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

Pharisee, and I counted it my gain and my ho*
nor :' Phil. iii. 4, &c. But what things were
gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
Yea dobtless, and I count all things but loss for
the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord. I glory in being a minister of the
gospel ; it is the highest honor God could have
put upon me, who am less than the least of all
saints. To me is this grace given to preach
among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of
Christ: Eph. iii. 8. I glory in it to that degree,
that I am dead to all things else. God forbid
I should glory in any thing save i?i the cross of
our Lord Jesus, whereby the world is crucified
to me, and I to the world. I glory in my suf*
feringsfor Christ; and, my friends, if ye under-
stood the value of these things, they are your
glory too. If I am offered up a sacrifice for the
service of your faith ; I joy and rejoice together
with you all : O ! that you would but rejoice to-
gether with me in it.'

Thus, I have showed you that all these things
are implied in St. Paul's not being ashamed of
the gospel of Christ, and I have proved it to you
from other parts of his epistles.

The third general head I proposed to speak
to, was this,

OF THE GOSPEL. 25

III. What is there in this gospel that may be
supposed to expose any man to shame !

And this question is very needful ; for if there
were nothing in it that men might take occasion
to throw their scandals and reproaches at, it had
been no great matter for St. Paul to have cried
out, 'I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ?

To this I answer in general, this was a gospel
that contradicted the rooted prejudices of the
Jews, and was severely reproached by those
that professed great knowledge in their law ; it
was also a new and strange thing to the Gen-
tiles. A crucified Christ was a stumbling-block
to the Jews and foolishness to the Greek : 1
Cor. 1. 23. There was something in the faith
and practice and worship of the gospel, so con-
trary to the course of their education in the
world, so opposite to their carnal inclinations,
and to the customs and fashions of their coun-
try, that a man might well be afraid and ashamed
to profess it, when they lift their tongues and
their hands and their swords against it ; and
the chief of them crucified the Lord of glory,
and put the preachers of it to death.

Thus, in general. But while I descend to
particulars, I shall confine myself only to those
occasions of shame, which the same gospel
meets with in our day, that so the discourse

26 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

may be more useful to the present audience ;
and as I mention each objection or supposed
occasion of shame, I shall endeavor to take off
the force of it, and shew that it is unreasonable.
Now the things that might any ways be sup-
posed to expose this gospel to shame, may be
ranked under these two heads.

I. Those which arise from the doctrines of
the gospel: and

II. Those which arise from the professors of
the gospel.

I. The occasions of shame that arise from the
doctrines of the gospel, are these five that fol-
low.

1. 'That there are mysteries in it which are
above the powers of our reason to comprehend,
and I will never believe a gospel that I cannot
comprehend.' This is the language of Sociai-
ans, men that pretend so much to reason in
our day.

But to relieve this occasion of shame, let us
consider, that mysteries are of two sorts.

1. Such as we could never have known, but
by divine revelation ; but being once revealed,
they may be fairly explained and understood.
Such is the doctrine of the satisfaction of Christ,
of the resurrection of the dead, of forgiveness
of sins for the sake of Christ's sufferings, and of

OF THE GOSPEL. 27

eternal life in a future world. I say, these are
all mysteries that were hid from ages, that is,
they are such truths which nature or reason
could not have found out of itself, but being
once revealed to us of God, may be fairly ex-
plained and well understood.

Another sort of mysteries, are those, which
when revealed unto us, we know merely the
existence or reality and certainty of them, but
cannot comprehend the mode and manner how
they are. And of this kind there are but two
that I know of in our religion, which are the
chief objects of offence to some men. These
are the mystery of the blessed Trinity, and the
mystery of the incarnation of Christ. The mys-
tery of Three Persons, who have some glorious
communion in one Godhead ; and the mystery
of two natures united in one Person.

Now, though the way and manner how Three
Persons, Father, Son and Spirit, should be one
God, and how two natures, human and divine,
should be one Person in Christ Jesus ; I say,
though the way and manner how these things
are, is not so easy to be explained and unfolded
by us, and above our own present capacity to
comprehend and fully explain, yet I could never
find these things proved impossible to be. If I
must refuse to believe a thing that I know not

28 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

the manner and nature of, there are many
things in the world of nature and in natural re-
ligion that I must disbelieve. Let them ex-
plain to me in natural religion what is the eter-
nity of God, what ideas they can have of a Be-
ing that never began to be ; and then perhaps
I may be able to explain to them how Three
Persons can be one God, and how two natures
can be in one Person. I am well assured, there
are some doctrines in natural religion as diffi-
cult to be explained, and hard to be understood,
and the manner of them is as mysterious, as
these doctrines of revealed religion, which are
also rendered more offensive by some men's at-
tempts to explain them in an unhappy manner.
But we may go a step lower to meet this ob-
jection, and confound it. In the world of na-
ture there are mysteries of this kind, which are
as unaccountable, and as hard to be unfolded,
as the mysteries of grace. It is the doctrine of
unions, both in the Trinity and the incarnation,
which renders them so mysterious. Now this
doctrine of unions in Natural Philosophy hath
been hitherto insolvable. We know that spirit
and body are united to make a man: but the
manner how they are united, remains still a
most difficult question. We know that some
bodies are hard, and some are soft ; but wha*

OP THE GOSPEL. 29

it is that ties or unites the hard bodies so closely
together, and makes them so difficult to be se-
parated, is a riddle to the best philosophers,
which they cannot solve; or, what it is that
renders the parts of soft bodies so easily sepa-
rable. And many other things there are in
nature as mysterious as this.

Besides, if it were possible for us to explain
all things in nature, and to write a perfect book
of Natural Philosophy, with accurate skill, yet
it would not follow that we must know God
the Creator to perfection. The things of God
are infinitely superior to the things of men.
The nature of a Creator, in his manner of exist-
tence, is infinitely above the nature of creatures
in theirs. 'Tis fit there should be something be-
longing to God, an Infinite Spirit, that is incom-
prehensible, and above the power of fiinite spirits
to comprehend and fully search out and explain.
It ought, therefore, to be no just ground of shame
to the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, that it
has mysteries in it ; that is to say, has some doc-
trines in it which we could never have found out
by the mere light of reason ; and some truths
the full manner of explication whereof we can
never attain to, since there are many things in

the world of nature, in the world of bodies and

c %

30 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

souls, and many things in natural religion, which
we cannot fully explain.

2. Another occasion of reproach, which men
fasten upon the gospel, is, that some of the doc-
trines are so singular and contrary to the com-
mon opinions and reasonings of men ; such as
that the ever blessed God should want a satis-
faction, in order to pardon sin with honor;
that he should punish the most innocent and
obedient man that ever lived, even his own Son,
for the sins of wicked and rebellious creatures ;
that we should be freed from hell, which we
had deserved, by the sufferings of another in
our stead ; that one man should be justified with
another's obedience ; nay, that ten thousands of
men should be pardoned and justified for the sake
of the obedience and death of one single man ;
that all our own repentance is not sufficient of
itself to obtain our pardon ; that our holiness be it
never so great, does not procure us a title to the
favor of God and heaven ; and that dead bodies*
though mouldered in the grave for thousands of
years, should be raised again to life and immor-
tality . These are such strange doctrines, so very
foreign to the common sentiments of most men,
that some of the Athenians cried out, cwhat does
this babbler mean 1 A man should be ashamed

OP THE GOSPEL. St

of these things ; the very heathen philosophers
called it foolishness.'

But now to remove this scandal, let us con-
sider, that many of these things are not so con-
trary to the reason of men as some think : for as
to the satisfaction made for our sins by the suf-
ferings of Christ, did not almost all the heathen
world suppose that God would not pardon sin
without satisfaction ? What else mean all their
bloody sacrifices 1 And why did they some-
times proceed so far as to murder men and
offer them to God for their sins 1 I confess, in-
deed, that many of the philosophers and learned
men amongst them who derided the gospel of
Christ, did also despise the sacrifices and reli-
gious ceremonies of their own countrymen, be-
lieving that God would be merciful to men that
were penitent and pious, without any rites of
atonement and sacrifice. But it is as evident,
also, that the people had a general notion of the
necessity of some atonement for sin, and that the
more valuable the sacrifice was, the sooner was
their god appeased, and the benefit procured
would be more extensive, however the philoso-
phers might ridicule it. It is manifest then, that
many of the heathens did imagine, that the death
and sufferings of one person should procure par-
don and immunities for a whole multitude. And,

32 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

upon this principle, some of the ancient Romans>
now and then, out of nobility of spirit, devoted
themselves to death to appease the anger of
the Gods for their whole country. Thus it ap-
pears, that the business of satisfaction for sin,
and the doctrine of expiation and atonement by
the blood and death of a surety, was not so ut-
terly unknown in the world.

I add farther, that the notion of one person's
making satisfaction for the crime of another, in
human and political affairs, has been sometimes
practised, and thought to be very intelligible ;
and why should it be counted so very monstrous
and absurd, in things divine ] Do we not under-
stand what it is for one man to become a surety
for another, or for a criminal to be set free from
punishment by the voluntary substitution of
another person in his stead ? Are we not well
acquainted with what it is for one man to pay the
debt of another, and the original person that
was obliged thereby, to become free 1 Do we
not know what it is for a whole family of chil-
dren to inherit a possession for many ages, one
after another, for some noble acts and services
of their father? Therefore, honor, and glory, and
happiness, bestowed upon a multitude for the
sake of what one man has done, is not so unintel-
ligible a thing as some men would persuade us.

OF THE GOSPEL. S3

Why should that be esteemed impossible in the
affairs of religion, which is evident and plainly
practicable in the affairs of this world ?

Again, they think it strange that our repent-
ance should not be enough to obtain the pardon
of past sins, and our own obedience should not
procure heaven for us. But are not traitors, and
robbers, and all notorious criminals punished in
all governments, notwithstanding their repent-
ance 1 Can their sorrow for what is past pro-
cure a pardon of their prince 7 Who then would
be punished 1 And is man's government in pun-
ishing criminals without a satisfaction just and
reasonable] And shall God's government be
counted unreasonable 1 Can future obedience
among men obtain no forgiveness for past trea-
son and rebellion 1 And why then should you
think the great God is obliged to accept of it 1

As for the resurrection of the dead, though it
was counted a strange thing among heathens
when it was first preached to them ; yet in these
latter days, since the knowledge of God and his
glorious attributes has been so much increased,
and the reason of men has freely exercised it-
self upo n things divine and human, the resur-
rection is not counted any impossible thing, nor
the doctrine of it incredible. And I am verily
persuaded, if men whom God has endued with

34 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

large capacities and great skill in reasoning,
would but employ those talents to write a ra-
tional account of most of the doctrines of our
Lord Jesus Christ, it might be done with much
glory and success.

As for those few doctrines of Christianity,
which may at first appear less reasonable to
men, their abundant attestation from heaven de-
mands our belief.

3. Another occasion of reproach is, that the
gospel teaches mortification and self-denial, in a
very great degree conflicting with our natural
appetites, and fighting against our own flesh
and blood : and all that it promises is an unseen
heaven, a future reward, a far distant happiness
in another country, which eye has not seen, nor
ear heard of, nor the heart of man conceived.
A mere spiritual pleasure that is to be enjoyed
by the mind, and which the body shall not taste
of, till perhaps after a thousand years or more.
Now, as under the former head, the doctrines of
the gospel are a scandal to men of reason ; so
under this they become a scandal and reproach
to those that are litterally called men of sense,
who are carpalized and immersed in sensuality.
They think it strange to forego the joys of sense,
for the hopes of enjoying a happiness in a world
they don't know when or where*

OF THE GOSPEL. 35

But I need not stand long to answer this
calumny ; for even some of the refined philoso-
phers gave sufficient rebuke to this sensual
temper. The very heathens could say enough
to abash this censure, and to remove this occa-
sion of shame, though the gospel of Christ does
it infinitely better.

Christianity does not abridge us of the com-
mon comforts of flesh and blood, nor lay an un-
reasonable restraint upon any natural appetite ;
but it teaches us to live like men, and not like
brutes ; to regulate and manage our animal
nature with its desires and inclinations, so as to
enjoy life in the most proper and becoming
manner ; to eat and drink and taste the boun-
ties of Providence to the honor of our Creator,
and to the best interest of our souls.

But suppose, we were forbid all the indul-
gence of our appetites and the delights of
sense, by the gospel ; surely, those who know
what intellectual pleasures are, who can relish
the joy that belongs to spirits, will not be much
terrified with these objections, nor deride the
faith of Christ because it does not propose to
them the reward of an earthly paradise. The
rewards of the gospel are indeed spiritual till the
resurection, but those spiritual pleasures shall
vastly over-balance all that toil, sorrow, and suf-

36 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

fering we have passed through on earth, and all
that self-denial which we'have exercised. But
when the body shall be raised again, our refined
delights, of all kinds, shall be infinitely satisfying:
We shall not say, that God has dealt out happi-
ness to us with a niggardly hand, but that he has
exceeded all his promises, when we shall come
to taste the things God has prepared for us,
which eye has not seen, or ear heard of.

4. Another prejudice against the gospel is
this. Some persons charge it with much of en-
thusiasm ; and that the doctrine of the opera-
tions of the Spirit, and the expectation of his
divine assistance to instruct us in truth, to mor-
tify sin in us, and to enable us to perform holy
duties, has too much of a visionary and fanciful
turn of mind, and does not become men that
profess reason.

But, if such objectors were but better ac-
quainted with themselves, and knew the weak-
ness of their own reason in the search after
truth, and the various and plausible errors that
attend their inquiries on every side ; if they
were better acquainted with the strength of
temptation, the power of their own sinful ap-
petites, and the weakness of their will to resist
sin, and to fulfil the rules of righteousness;
surely, they would not think it a thing to lift up

OF THE GOSPEL. 3*7

a prayer to the great God to guide them into
truth, and to assist them to walk steadily in the
paths of religion and virtue. If they had but
a deep and lively sense of their own insufficiency
for every thing that's good, and of the many
dangers and enemies that beset them,they would
rather see infinite reason to bless their Creator,
that has given them any promise or hope of the
aids of his grace.

Nor is it at all fantastical or irrational to sup-
pose, that the great and blessed God, who made
these spirits of ours, should kindly act upon
them, and influence them by secret and divine
methods, to their duty and their happiness ;
that he should send his own Spirit to help
them onward in their proper business, which is
to serve him here, and assist them in pursuit
of their true blessedness, which is to enjoy him
hereafter.

Methinks it is one of the glories of this gos-
pel of Christ, that God has not only sent his
Son to purchase heaven for us, but continually
sends down his own Spirit to lead every hum-
ble Christian in the way thither. When a
poor penitent creature, distressed under a sense
of the power of sin dwelling in him, who has
long and often toiled and labored to bring his
heart near to God, and to suppress the irregu-

38 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

lar and exorbitant appetites of his nature, ad-
dresses himself to the throne of God, and cries
earnestly for divine help ; it is a glorious provi-
sion that is made in the gospel of Christ, that
the Spirit of God is promised for our assistance.
Nor is at all unworthy of a person of the great-
est reason, and the best understanding, hum-
bly to wait and hope for the accomplishment
of this promise. Thus the charge of enthu-
siasm vanishes, and the gospel maintains its
honor.

5. The last objection against the doctrines of
the gospel of Christ is, that 'they are not suffi-
ciently attested, that there is not ground
enough given to credit the divinity of them in
our age.'

They are ready to say, ' These things were
done (according as ourselves profess) above
sixteen hundred years ago, and we have not
sufficient credentials to venture our faith upon
at this day.'

It would be too long here to repeat over to
you half the grounds we have for faith in this
gospel. That there was such a man as Jesus
Christ ; that he lived at such a time at Jerusa-
lem ; that he wrought wonderful works in his
own country, is not at all disbelieved by those
that profess any reasonable faith in human

OF THE GOSPEL. 39

history. The Jews themselves, who were his
greatest enemies, do not deny that he wrought
those miracles, which others could not work ;
but they pretended that he did it by some
magic art, by diabolical charms ; and wrought
miracles, not "by the power of God, but by vir-
tue derived from spells and evil spirits. So
that the miracles he wrought were not disbe-
lieved and denied, but the heavenly spring of
them is impiously perverted and turned down-
ward, as though Christ borrowed his power
from hell to transact these affairs. But the
holiness and the heavenly temper of the gospel
of Christ, refutes this accusation. Satan was
never known to demolish his own kingdom of
ungodliness in such a manner as this. The
gospel of Christ, in every part of it, has a most
singular and sublime tendency to advance the
name, the attributes and the honor of God,
whom Satan hates with a perfect hatred. He
would never lend his assisting hand to support
a scheme of religion so divine and holy.

Never was any body of doctrines and of
duties so composed and calculated to promote
the glory of God, nor the good of man, as this
gospel does. Our peace and happiness would
be secured by it on earth, if all men would
comply with it, and our felicity after death is

40 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

the great and indefeasible proposal and design
of it. Now Satan is a restless enemy to men
his fellow-creatures, as well as to God his
Maker ; and he would never exert the remains
of his angelic power to encourage and defend
such a pious and beneficent religion.

But the most amazing progress and success
of the gospel, is another argument that proves
it to be divine, even when devils and magicians
opposed it as well as princes and philosophers.
That the gospel itself, without the force of arms,
that a naked gospel,should spread itself through-
out the world, in so short a space of time, and
that by the preaching of a few despised persons,
and several of them fishermen that were utterly
unlearned : that this gospel should triumph
over all the powers and policies of men and
hell : that it should make its way in opposition
to the wisdom of philosophers, and the will of
princes, and all the temptations and terrors of
this world : this is another miracle, which per-
haps is as divine and convincing as any of the
preceding wonders that attested this gospel,
when it was first preached.

I add also the testimony of prophecy to that
of miracles. The wondrous and exact accom-
plishment of many prophecies, since our Lord

OF THE GOSPEL. 41

Jesus Christ dwelt on earth in the days of his
flesh, confirm his gospel. The prophecies that
he himself gave forth from God is another tes-
timony to this gospel, which is uncontrolable.
The destruction of Jerusalem, the time and
methods of its destruction, and the terrors of it,
may be read in Matthew, xxiv. And if you
read the history of Josephus, a Jew, you find
so many parallels, that you must say Christ did
foretel it indeed.

I might here subjoin the predictions of the
apostles, particularly that of St. Paul and St.
John, concerning the rise and spirit of Anti-
christ, wherein the church of Rome so clearly
answers the language of the visions and pro-
phecies.

But the brightest and most uncontrolable
witness of prophecy to the truth of the gospel,
is the most exact and punctual accomplish-
ments of all the predictions of the Old Testa-
ment, in the life and death, the resurrection
and glory of Jesus Christ our Lord. From the
first promise given to Adam in the garden,
down to the words of Malachi, the last of the
prophets, you find every thing that was said
of him, fulfilled in his history. And thus
the books of the Jews, wherein they placed
all their hopes, confirm the gospel of Chrsit*
d2

42 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

and refute and confound their own infidelity s
so that if ever I had been a Jew, and did
believe Moses and the prophets, I think I am
constrained to be a Christian,, and believe in
Jesus Christ.

Thus I have endeavored to answer those
objections against the gospel, which are pre-
tended to arise from the truths or doctrines
of it : and before I proceed to answer those,
cavils which are raised against it because of
the professors of it, I must finish the present
discourse with a word or two of improve-
ment.

Use 1. If this be a gospel not to be ashamed
of, then study it well : learn the truths and
doctrines of it thoroughly : truths and doc-
trines which St. Paul, so wise and so great a
man, did not blush to profess, and preach, and
die for. Value it as he valued it: the more
you know it, the more you will esteem it ; and
the better you are acquainted with all the glo-
rious articles of it, the less you will be ashamed
of it: the divine harmony of the whole will cast
a beauty and lustre on every part.

Use 2. Furnish yourselves with arguments
for it daily, that you may profess it without

OF THE GOSPEL. 43

shame, and defend it without blushing. This is
a day of temptation, and you know not what
conversation you may be called into by divine
Providence ; you know not what cavils you may
meet with to assault your faith, and attack
Christianity. Be ready, therefore, to give rea-
sons of the hope that is in you, and to make a just
and pertinent reply to gainsayers, and to con-
vince those, if possible, that are led away captive
by the wiles of the devil, to forsake Christ and
his gospel. Let not every turn of wit or sleight
of argument and sophistry, make you waver in
your faith. It is a gospel that will bear the
trial of reasonings and reproaches. It has
something in itself that is divine, and therefore
it is able to support the professors, of it against
an army of cavillers.

Use 3. Submit to all the institutions of it.
Profess the whole of this gospel ; not only the
doctrines, but the ordinances of this gospel, are
divine and glorious ; they have something ia
them that show they come from God, and they
have something in them that evidently leads to
God. They have all something in their sense
and signification that discovers divinity. Wait
upon God, therefore, in all his ordinances in the
assemblies of Christians, that you may see his

44 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

power and his glory, in his own sanctuary ; and
that you may, from your own experience, be
able to say, that the gospel is too great, too
glorious, too divine a thing in its doctrine and
worship, and in all its institutions, for you
ever to be ashamed of. It has now, for six-
teen ages endured the test of the wit and the
rage of earth and hell, and it shall stand in
power and glory, till the heavens be no more.
Amen.,

A RATIONAL DEFENCE OF THE GOSPEL:
OR,

COURAGE IN PROFESSING CHRISTIANITY.

Rom. i. 16.

/ am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for
it is th*e power of God unto salvation to every
one that believeth.

PART SECOND.

There are many in the world who call them-
selves Christians, and boast in the name ; yet
if you ask them what the gospel of Christ is,
they are either struck into confusion and silence,
or they give such an awkward and impertinent
answer, as sufficiently discovers they know little
of the religion of Christ, or of the sacred name
into which they were baptized. Now, that we
may act and speak as becomes persons indued
with reason, I thought it necessary at first, to
give some account what this gospel is, that
you might know and understand the religion
which you profess ; and if ye will glory in the

46 a RATIONAL DEFENCE

name of Christian, ye may be able to tell what
it is you mean by Christianity.

By reading the books of the New Testament
wherein the gospel is contained, you will find
this to be the sum and substance of it, viz:
* That it is a wise, a holy, and a gracious consti-
tution of God, for the recovery of sinful man, by
sending his own Son Jesus Christ into the flesh,
to obey his law which man had broken, to make
a proper atonement for sin by his death, and
thus to procure the favor of God an^ eternal
happiness, for all that believe and repent, and
receive this offered salvation ; together with a
promise of the Holy Spirit, to work this faith
and repentance in their hearts, to renew their
sinful natures unto holiness, to form them on
earth fit for this happiness, and to bring them
to the full possession of it in heaven/

I have shewn, in the next place, what St.
Paul meant, when he told the Romans, he ' was
not ashamed of this gospel :' he was neither
ashamed to believe it as a man, nor to profess
it as a Christian, nor to preach it to others as a
minister, nor to defend it as a good soldier of
Christ, nor to suffer and die for it as a martyr.

The third thing, which I proposed, was to
make it appear, that 'all the occasions of

OP THE GOSPEL. 47

shame, which men of infidelity pretend to raise
from this gospel, may be answered upon the
fair and just principles of reason and argument.'
The first sort of reproaches are those which
are cast upon the doctrines of the gospel, and
I hope I have rolled them away.

I repeat no more of these things, but pro-
ceed to the next sort of occasions of shame,
and these are such as are supposed to arise
from the professors of this Gospel ; and I shall
endeavor to shew you also how they may be
answered. They are chiefly these four.

I. Some will say, cThe professors of this
gospel,in the beginnh g,were the weak and fool-
ish and mean things of this world ; but it was
despised by the wise, it was scorned by the
great and honorable, and persecuted by the
mighty. Why should a Paul, a Pharisee, a
Doctor of the Law, become the follower of a
carpenter's son, and associate with a parcel of
fishermen ? This is a scandal, and foolish in-
deed. Who among the Pharisees or the riders,
have beli ved on m? John vii. 48.' This was
the stumbling block of the gospel in that age,
and it is the stumbling block at which many
persons take offe ce in our age, too. « It is the
unthinking multitude,' say they, 'the mere mob
of mankind, that ai e led away with the noise of

48 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

strange things and the gospel. And it is only
those who have no relish of good sense, that
can dispense with mysteries. The poorer and
weaker sort of men and women flock after your
powerful preachers of the gospel, but wise men
despise it.'

I am very glad, my friends, if in your con-
versation you meet with no such persons that
ridicule the gospel at this rate. But there are
many in our age and nation, arrived at this
height of pride and contempt of the gospel.

This objection may have more answers than
one given to it ; as first, It is a matter of unjust
reproach, and it is false in fact ; for all the pro-
fessors of this gospel are not weak and unlearn-
ed. There have been in the very beginning of
Christianity some wise, some great persons,
that have given testimony to this gospel, by
their believing it. St. Paul was a man of no
weak reason, no mean understanding, no small
learning, and yet he believes this gospel, and
professes he is not ashamed of it.

And there have been in most ages of the
church, some instances of the power and suc-
cess of this gospel, in converting philosophers,
and senators, and princes. The learned the
ingenious, and the noble amongst mankind,
have sometimes given up their names to

OF THE GOSPEL. 49

Christ, have yielded their assent to his doctrines,
and conformed their hearts and lives to the
rules of his gospel. Men of wit and reason
have been converted to the faith, and then
have exerted their peculiar talents in the de-
fence of Christianity, and they have convinced
the world that they had neither left their rea-
son nor their wit behind them, when they
became Christians. Men of grandeur and
power have sometimes also supported it with
honor.

But the number of these has not been ex-
ceeding great. God has ordained that there
should be sorne^ to show that it is no foolish
and unreasonable doctrine ; that it is not a reli-
gion unworthy of kings, nor unbecoming the
wisest and the greatest of characters. But if
there have been but few great and wise who
have embraced it, it is evident that its success
and glory is not owing to the wisdom and pow-
er of men, but to the divinity of its doctrines,
and the power of God.

Besides, I might tell you secondly, that
riches, and grandeur, and elevated degrees of
wit and learning, become a sore temptation to
pride of mind and self-sufficiency. Now the
faith of the gospel is founded in humility, and
self-diffidence, and poverty of spirit ; and this is

50 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

one plain reason why it was received by so few
of the rich, and the learned, and the mighty
among men, though it was contrived and in-
vented by God himself.

I answer, in the third place, that it is one of
the designed characters of the true gospel of
Christ, and it is foretold by the ancient prophets,
that when it should come to be preached upon
the earth, the poor-should receive it. Its recep-
tion by the poor and weak among men, is one
evidence that it comes from God ; Matth. xi. 5.
When John the Baptist sent his disciples to
our Saviour, to know whether he was the Mes-
siah, or must they expect another ? Go tell
John, the blind receive sight, the deaf hear, and
the lame walk, and to the poor the gospel is
preached ; blessed is he that is not offended in
me, &c. Go and give John this very account
I now relate to you, and tell him these are my
credentials, these are the testimonials I bring.
John will infer that I am the Messiah, and this
is the true gospel that I preach ; for the great
and rich, and the pretenders to wisdom among
the Jews, account it a stone of stumbling, and
a rock of offence, and only a few of the poor
receive it, as it was foretold by the prophets.

Each of us may say, therefore, if only the
wise, or the great, or the rich believed it, it

OF THE GOSPEL. 51

must have been such a gospel as I could never
have believed ; for it wanted one character
which is necessarily adjoined to it, that is, that
the poor receive the gospel. Father, I thank
thee, says our Lord, that thou hast hid these
things from the wise and prudent, but thou
hast revealed them unto babes : Math. xi. 25.
It pleased God, when the world by wisdom
knew not God, to darken all their wisdom, and
turn it into folly; and to call those that were
esteemed fools, and make them wise in believ-
ing the gospel of Christ. It has pleased God
to choose the mean and weak and contempti-
ble things of this world, to confound the wise
and mighty. It has pleased him to choose the
things that are not, to bring to nought the
things that are, that no flesh might glory in
his presence ; 1 Cor. i. 27, &c.

II. It is another occasion of stumbling or
shame in the gospel of Christ, that some of the
professors of it are vicious in their lives. < Will
you believe such a gospel,' says an infidel, 'that
does not restrain the professors of it from the
worst of sins.'

This, I confess, gives it great dishonor among
the men of the world, and is sometimes ready
to shake the faith of younger Christians ; they
know not how to go on farther in Christianity,

5£ A RATIONAL DEFENCE

for such and such that made great profession,
you see how they are fallen. This is a com-
mon temptation of the devil ; it is a frequent
snare, and there hath been many a pious soul
that hath been in danger of being caught
thereby. The vices of some professors were
great, even in St. Paul's days : there were
some among the PhiHippians, Phil. iii. 18, of
whom I have told you often, and now even
weeping, that they walk as enemies to the
cross of Christ, and 'east scandal and shame
upon it. It makes my eyes flow with tears,
and my soul bleed within me, to hear of it :
the gospel of Christ is so much dishonored by
these means.'

But if we take a nearer view, we shall see
that no doctrine ought to fare the worse, be-
cause some wicked men are professors of it.
It was not counted a discredit to philosophy,
that some of the professors of it, who hated the
Gospel, were vicious in their lives. I would ask
the deist now, is there any ground to disbe-
lieve natural religion, because there are some
that make profession of it, are fallen into great
sins ? The gospel itself teaches us to deny all
ungodliness and worldly lusts, and does not in-,
dulge one of them. And they are said to b*
enemies to the cross of Christ, when their cov.

OF THE GOSPEL. 53

vernation is all earthly, when their God is their
belly, and their glory is their shame. This is no
fault of the gospel, for they felt not the power
of it. Nor is there any religion or profession in
the world, that would have had any followers at
all, if men must have entirely cashiered that
religion, because there have been some per-
sons vicious that have been professors of it. —
There is no sect, no religion in the world,
though the institution and the rules of it have
been ever so pious, but what has produced
some persons that have been vicious in their
lives.

But this cavil is still carried on, and urged
with much vehemence. ' If the gospel of Christ
were a religion so heavenly, and so divine in
its original, as you pretend, surely the nations
that profess it, would eminently exceed all
other nations in piety, in justice and goodness;
whereas, the nations that no\v-a-days embrace
Christianity, are not at all superior to the Ma-
hometans, nor to some of the heathens, either
in duty that relates to God or man : and if we
may give credit to ancient history, the virtues
of the old Romans, long before the days of Ju-
lius Caesar, shone much brighter than any of
the virtues of the baptized nations : there was
more truth and honesty, more devotion to the

54 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

heavenly powers, more of a public spirit anct
zeal for their country's good, than we can find
in any Ghrislian kingdoms or states now-a-days.
To this I would give these three answers.'

1st, The account which we have of the
shining virtues of these best ages of heathenism,
is given us only by their own posterity who
lived in succeeding ages. Now it is the well
known temper and custom of mankind, to mag-
nify the virtue of their ancestors, and to say,
that the former times were better than these .
but you have scarce any heathen writers who
do not describe their own age as vicious enough,
if they have occasion to talk upon that subject,
And, therefore, there is just reason to suspect
the strict truth of these encomiums of their
forefathers.

2dly, Although some social virtues in a hea-
then country might really flourish more for an,
age or two springing from the principles of ambi-
tion, and honor, and love to their own coun-
try; yet there were such vices also practised
among many of the Gentile nations, which are
seldom heard or known among Christians : the
apostle describes them in Rom. i. 26, and that
in such a manner, as leads us to believe that
they were practised by those who professed
wisdom among them.

0T THE GOSPEL. 55

It must be acknowledged, also, that these
nations were gross idolaters, and worshipped
many gods , and that even in the times when
their social virtues were most conspicuous.
Now, this is most highly criminal in the sight of
the great and Sovereign God, the Creator of all
things : and the warmer and the more zealous
were their devotions, which they paid to these
idols, with the neglect or contempt of the true
God, the greater was their guilt and abomina-
tion.

But 3dly, The chief answer I give is this,
that when whole kingdoms are made Christians
merely by birth, education and custom, it is not
to be supposed that a twentieth part of them
believe the gospel upon any just and reasonble
principles of knowledge and choice. When
whole cities and nations are worshippers of
Christ, no otherwise than the Ephesians were
worshippers of Diana, or the Turks of Mahomet,
it is not reasonable to expect that there should
be much difference in the virtues of such a na-
tional sort of Christians, Mahometans, or hea-
thens ; for the principle from which all their
religion springs is the same, namely, their edu-
cation, custom and fashion of their country ;
and therefore, their vices are much the same as
they would be according to the present reign-

56 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

ing humour, disposition, or political temper of
the nation, whatsoever were their form of reli-
gion and their established worship.

The true way, therefore, to put those things
to the test, is to consider those Christians only
who believe and profess the gospel from know-
ledge, and choice, and inward conviction, and
who make their religion a matter of solemnity
and importance, and not of mere form and cus-
tom. Now, if you seperate these from the rest of
mankind, I am well assured, that as bad as the
Christian world is, you will find all the human
and divine virtues more gloriously practised: '
among such Christians as these, than among
an equal number of the professors of any other
religion under the sun: for inward Christianity,
and the faith of the gospel, when it si built upon
just foundations, wilt necessarily draw along
with it such a train of virtues and graces as
shall adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour ;
and by such a comparison as this, men would
be constrained to confess that God is among
us of a truth.

III. The various and divided opinions, the
sects and parties that are found in the Christian
world, have been another occasion of scandal
and offence to the infidels. ' How can we ever
come,' say they, *to any certainty what your

I

OF THE GOSPEL. «*«

religion is, since you do not agree about it among
yourselves V

< All Europe pretends to be Christian, and to
believe the gospel ; yet France, and Spain, and
Italy, and Poland, and a good part of Germany,
tells us that true Christianity is found only
amongst them. But in the countries of Den-
mark and Sweden, and the northern parts of
Germany, and in the British Islands, there is
another religion professed, of a very different
kind, and they call theirs the pure gospel and
reformed Christianity. The Protestant and the
Papist divide these western parts of the world,
and they are ready to tear one another to
pieces upon the account of their different opi-
nions and practices. Now if the books that con-
tain the religion of Christ be of so very un-
certain sense and signification, truly we are
ashamed of such a doubtful religion ; it is even
as well for us to content ourselves with the re-
ligion that the light of nature teaches us, and
the dictates of our own common reason, which
we think has more certainty in it.*

To this, I answer, that it is a great mistake ta
imagine that the light of nature and reason, if
left entirely to itself in this corrupt and fallen
state, has more certainty in its determinations
than Scripture hath. How many wild opinions.

58 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

hath the corrupt mind of man produced among
the inhabitants of the heathen world, and this
same light of nature has not corrected them ?
What infinite diversity of vain and monstrous
fancies hath past for religion and devotion
among them? And the light of nature has
been supposed to dictate some of them, for
they did not always pretend revelation for them.
There have been wide and irreconcilable differ-
ences among the philosophers, as well as among
the priests and the people of different nations.
The light of nature and reason is a poor dark
bewildered thing, if it hath no commerce, nor
communication with persons who have been
favoured with Divine Revelation. It is only
the scripture that has established and ascer-
tained the doctrines of natural religion : and it
is to the scripture that the deist of our age are
obliged for their greater acquaintance with na-
tural religion than ever their forefathers, the
heathen philosophers, arrived at, though they
are too proud to acknowledge it. If they agree
better, and are more uniform in their principles
now than the old Epicureans, the Stoicks, and
the Platonists were, it is all owing to a more
intimate acquaintance with the writings of
Moses and the prophets, the evangelists and
the apostles ; so that it is with a very ill grace

OP THE GOSPEL. 59

that our present infidels can object to Christians
their difference of opinions, and pretend that
this is a ground of shame to the gospel of*
Christ, and a reason why they do not believe
or profess it.

But I come now to give some account of the
true reasons of such divisions of sect and party,
among Christians. There are two great causes
of these divisions, and the charge is not to be
laid upon the gospel of Christ, nor upon the
books that contain it.

1. The first cause is, that the Papist does
not pretend to derive his religion merely from,
the Bible ; but he brings in the Jewish Apocry-
phal writers of ancient ages, and lays them also
for a foundation of his faith ; and he makes the
traditions of the Christian Church, which he pre-
tends to have been delivered down from age to
age,of almost the same authority as the scripture
itself: and some of their authors have raised
these traditions to equal dignity with the scrip-
ture, as being built upon the same foundation,
viz. the authority of the church. As they -have
many things in their religion which they can-
not find in the word of God, so they think it is
sufficient if they can support them by these pre-
tended traditions of the church. Whereas, the
Protestant takes nothing for the ground of

60 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

his faith, but the books of the Old and Ne\v
Testament; and what he cannot find written
there, nor derived thence by most obvious and
evident consequences, he does not profess it as
any necessary part of his Christianity. The
religion of the Protestant, therefore, is abun-
dantly more conformable to the gospel of Christ,
both in the doctrines and the worship of it, be-
cause it derives the whole from the word of
God : but it is no wonder at all that there
should be such a difference between them and
the Papists, when they lay such different foun-
dations for their faith and practice.

2. Another reason why the Protestant and
Papist differ so much, is, because the Papist
pretends that there is an infallible judge among
them to determine all controversies ; and that
their popes and their councils, which they call
the church, have authority to appoint what
shall be esteemed the true articles of faith, and
to bring in rites and ceremonies into their wor-
ship, according to their own invention and plea-
sure. And that all the people are bound to
believe as the church bids them believe, and to
practise in matters of worship, whatsoever the
church bids them practise : and upon this ac-
count they forbid the Scripture to be read by
the common people, that they may not learn

OF THE GOSPEL. 61

the truth of the gospel, but may take all for
gospel which they teach them, and be con-
tent with it. Whereas, the Protestant has noth-
ing else but his Bible to have recourse to for
the conclusion of all controversies ; and he
encourages every man to use his Bible, and to
judge for himself concerning the sense and
meaning of it, using the best helps that he can
obtain for this end : the Protestant ministers
teach him not only what they know of the
gospel, but they put the Bible into his hand,
and bid him search and see whether things are
so or no, that thence he may learn what are
those doctrines and those duties which Christ
has required him to believe and practise.
Thence it comes to pass, that there are almost
a thousand things in Popery, which the Protes-
tants utterly disown, because they disown the
power of the pope, or church, to stamp new
articles of faith or invent new forms of worship.
Object. But it may be said still, there are so
many different sects and parties among the
Protestants themselves, as encourages the
deist to maintain his charge and accusation.
1 Why do you,' saith he, 'who profess to derive
all your religion from the Scripture, differ so
much among yourselves, both in doctrine, in
worship, and in the order of your churches, if

62 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

the gospel of Christ be so excellent a religion,
and if the books that contain it can give you
so plain and certain a knowledge of it V

I answer, that almost all those things where-
in Protestants differ, are but of smaller import-
ance in religion, in comparison of those many
and great things wherein they agree. The
chief and most important points of Christianity
are written with so much plainness and evidence
in the word of God, as would lead all humble,
honest, sincere and diligent enquirers into a
belief of them, and consent in them. Now it
is not necessary that the lesser matters of
Christianity should be written down so express-
ly in scripture : for the all-wise God thought it
proper to leave many of these articles of less
importance more dubious and obscure, both to
awaken the diligence of men to study his word
and to leave amongst them some occasions for
the exercise of their mutual charity and for-
bearance. Our Blessed Lord has thought it
proper to put the universal love which he re-
quires amongst his followers to this test or trial
to see whether they will cultivate peace and
charity to one another amidst their various and
divided opinions in things of less concernment.
I confess there are some differences among
Protestants in the great doctrines of the Trinity,

OF THE GOSPEL. 63

and the satisfaction of Christ, which must be
acknowledged to be articles of very high mo-
ment and importance in Christianity. But if
we compare those few who profess dangerous
opinions in these points, with the millions that
agree in the same general profession of faith, it
will be found that their number is but very small.
If we consider the great ignorance of God which
is found in all men, by nature, and take a sur-
vey of the unhappy influences that education,
fancy, passion, pride, frendship, aversion, pre-
cipitance and laziness, have upon mankind in
forming their judgments and opinions, we shall
not wonder to find some persons here and there
falling into strange sentiments, contrary to the
plain and sufficient evidence of scripture. We
believe in general, that whoever puts off all pre-
judices, and is piously sincere in his search of
the word of God, shall certainly find, through
divine assistance, all needful truth. If, therefore,
a disbeliever come with a serious, humble, and
pious mind, and apply himself with diligence and
fervent prayer to read the scripture, I am well
assured he will become a Christian, and find
out so much of the doctrines and duties of the
gospel, as are necessary to his eternal happi-
ness.

But there will be heresies arising sometimes

64 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

in the church. Tares will grow up sometimes
in the field that is ever so well cultivated and
sown with corn : and what unknown reasons
there may be in the counsels and providence of
God in permitting heresies to arise for the
farther trial of his own people, is too high and
hard a point for us to determine. The apostle
saith, 1 Cor. xi. 19; There must he also here-
sies among you, that they which are approved
may he made manifest. If such a thing as this
is, shall be abused by men of corrupt minds, to
turn them quite away from the gospel of Christ,
and to support their own infidelity, they must
answer for it at the great day to Christ their
Judge.

Thus I have done with the third charge or
accusation brought against the gospel, and re-
moved the scandal and shame that some men
have thrown upon it, because there are such
sects, and parties, and divided opinions among
the professors of it.

IV. Another occasion of scandal which infi-
dels charge upon the gospel of Christ, is this,
< That some who have long professed it have for-
saken it; and one should be ashamed to em-
brace such a faith as this is, for it has been tried
and found to be vain and groundless, even by
those who have known it long and searched it

OF THE GOSPEL. 65

through and through, and therefore at last they
have abandoned and cast it off.'

But in answer to this, give me leave to say,
first, that the chief and most common reason
why persons who have professed Christianity
cast it off, is not because they found any just
reason of blame either in its principles or rules ;
but because they think it too strict for them,
and it curbs their vicious appetites more than
they like.

I will allow, that perhaps there may be some
persons who have abandoned the Christian reli-
gion from a wantonness of fancy, from a li-
centiousness of thought, from a pride of rea-
soning, and who make it their glory to have
thrown off the bonds of their education, and to
have obtained the honor of free-thinkers, or
from a presuming conceit that they must com-
prehend every thing in their religion, and will
believe nothing that hath mysteries in it. Such
vain principles as these may have influenced
some minds, and given them up to apostacy :
but far the greatest part of those who forsake
the gospel have been tempted to it by the pow-
er of their lusts, which the gospel would re-
strain ; and some of these persons upon their
death-beds have confessed it too.

This is also sufficiently visible in the world,
f 2

66 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

that when men have long professed this gospel
and forsaken it, they seldom grow more pious,
more sober, more honest or good than before ;
but, on the contrary, they generally have in-
dulged vicious excesses and neglected all piety,
and this is rather a ground of glory to the
gospel than a just reason of shame.

If these persons had generally grown more
holy ; if they had feared God more afterwards
than ever they did before ; if they had more
aimed at the glory of God, and loved him bet-
ter, when they forsook Christ and his gospel ;
then we might have some reason to suspect
this gospel was false, and a mere mistake or
imposture. But when these persons grow
more unjust than before, love, their neighbours
less, are become more sensual, more selfish,
disregard God more than they did before; I
repeat it again, this is rather a ground of glory to
the gospel of Christ, than of shame. Demas
hath forsaken us, saith Paul, because he loved
this present world ; 2 Tim. iv. 10. A covetous
Demas is no good argument why St. Paul
should forsake Christ, or be ashamed of the
gospel. And the apostle has shewn that those
who have made shipwreck of their faith, have
parted with a good conscience too, and lost
their virtue; 1 Tim. i. 19, 20.

OF THE GOSPEL. 67

But there is another answer which the apos-
tle John gives to this objection in his first epistle,
chap. ii. ver. 19. They went out from us, but
they were not of us ; for if they had been of us,
they would no doubt have continued with us:
but they went out that they might be made man-
ifest that they were not all of us. They might
make a profession of the gospel, and perhaps
give a real assent to the truths and doctrines
of it by the convincing influence of miracles and
human reason, or perhaps they became Chris-
tians merely by the force of education, because
they were taught this religion from their child-
hood, and professed it without thought; but they
never had such a powerful belief of this gospel
of Christ, as to change their hearts, to renew
their natures, to form their souls after the image
of Christ into real holiness ; and, therefore, like
the hearers that are compared to stony ground,
the seed did not sink deep into their hearts,
though they might receive the word at first
with joy ; but having not root in themselves,
they endure but for a while, and when any temp-
tation arises, they are offended, and depart from
the faith which they once professed ; Math. xiii.
20, 21. Thus it appears, that the gospel of
Christ is never the worse in itself, nor does it
deserve the less esteem in the world, notwith-

68 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

standing such apostates as these, no more than
seed-corn, should be pronounced naught, be-
cause it does not bring forth a harvest in every soil.

I have now finished the third general head of
discourse which I proposed, and have shown,
whatsoever occasions of shame might be sup-
posed to arise, either from the doctrines of the
gospel, or the professors of it, are unjustly
charged as blemishes on the gospel ; and I have
given particular answers to both sorts of cavils,
and defeated the accusations.

One word of advice to Christians shall con-
clude the present discourse ; and that is this.

- A word of advice.

Since the gospel of Christ gives no just occa-
sions of shame, you, that are professors of it,
should take heed that you do nothing to cast
shame on this gospel. Do not mingle the
Christian faith with doubtful notions of your own.
Do not defile your Christian conversation with
sinful practices. Do not make the lesser cir-
cumstances and appendages of your religion, the
matter of loud contest, and a party strife ; for
all these things expose the gospel to shame,
and may justly put its professors to the blush, in
the face of the world, when they are guilty of
these practices.

OF THE GOSPEL. 69

Let me insist a little upon each of these.

1. Do not mingle the Christian faith with
doubtful notions and fancies of your own. The
articles of our Christianity, and the necessary
truths of the gospel, are divine and glorious :
take heed you do not bring in your peculiar
sentiments and favorite opinions, which have
no sufficient evidence from the word of God,
and join them in the same rank of dignity with
the articles of your faith ; and much less should
you dare to impose them upon the consciences
of your fellow-christians. The gospel itself
will suffer by it, and sink in the esteem of the
world, when the divine doctrines of it are min-
gled with our weaknesses, and debased by the
addition of our doubtful sentiments.

2. Defile not your Christian conversation with
sinful practices. Indulge not a conformity to this
present evil world in any of the corrupt and un-
lawful customs and* courses of it. Mingle not
your practice of the lovely duties which this gos-
pel enjoins, wkh lying, and slandering, and rail-
ing ; do not interline your lives with religion and
sin, with devotion and shameful lusts. It is a
gospel that forbids all iniquity ; it requires that
you mortify sin, and cleanse yourselves from
every defilement of flesh and spirit, and that you
go on to perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord ;

70 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

2 Cor. vii. 1. The very design and end of it in
God's eternal counsels and contrivance, is, that
you might be holy and without blame before
him in love, Ephes. i. 4. If you pursue this ad-
vice, then shall others, who behold you, confess
that there is something divine in Christianity,
when you thus adorn the doctrine of God your
Saviour. Thus you give the gospel its due hon-
or, by believing all it reveals, by worshipping
according to the methods of itsappointment,and
by that purity of conversation which it enjoins.
3. Make not the lesser circumstances and
appendages of your religion the matter of loud
contest, and a party-strife. We are called to
contend earnestly for the great and necessary
doctrines of faith, which were once delivered to
the Saints : but we are commanded also to re-
ceive those that are weak in the faith, without
involving them in doubtful disputations about
matters of less moment. Give no occasion to
the infidel to blaspheme the gospel by your
factions and quarrels, and the rage of a bitter
and unsanctified zeal. Oh, that the time were
come, when the wolf and the lamb shall lie down
together, and there shall be nothing to hurt or
destroy in all the Holy Mountain ! But surely,
it is very hard if the lambs themselves, who
belong to the flock of Christ, cannot live with-

OF THE GOSPEL. 71

out hurting and destroying one another ; that
Christians cannot live without exposing their
divine and heavenly religion to the blasphemies
of sinful men. Happy were the Christian
world, if we could all behave ourselves so as
never to give occasion to the adversary to re-
proach the professors of the Christian faith, nor
throw shame and dishonour upon the gospel of
Christ ! May the blessed spirit of God teach us
this lesson effectually, and let it be copied out
in our lives daily, till we arrive at the regions
of perfect holiness and love ! Amen.

A RATIONAL DEFENCE OF THE GOSPEL t
OR,

COURAGE IN PROFESSING CHRISTIANITY.

Rom. i. 16.

/ am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for
it is the power of God unto salvation to every
one that believelh.

PART THIRD.

Though the passion of shame has something
in it that sinks our nature, and enfeebles
our spirits, yet it is a very becoming passion,
where sin is the object of it ; and indeed, it was
wisely ordained by our Creator, to be a guardian
to those small remains of natural virtue that
abide in us since the fall. We find the first
young sinners clothed with shame, in the
garden of Eden, at the presence of God. But
the growing corruption of our natures, the
subtilty of Satan, and the temptations of this
world, have joined together to take this piece-of
artillery out of the hands of virtue, and make use
of it in their attacks upon religion and goodness.

OF THE GOSPEL. 73

We ought to be ashamed indeed of nothing but
our sin, our folly, and our wretchedness ; but we
have been too ready to be ashamed, even of the
grace of God, and the methods of our recovery
from folly, wretchedness and sin. The gospel
itself — the glorious gospel- — has been made a
matter of reproach among men, and its profes-
sors have been sometimes tempted to be
ashamed of it.

The blessed apostle, in my text, had gained a
victory over this temptation, for he was not
ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Whatsoever
there might be contained in the doctrines of this
gospel, or whatsoever might be found among
the professors of it, from which infidels or un-
believers might take occasion to throw shame
and scandal upon it ; yet I have shown in the
(wo foregoing discourses, that all this is unjustly
charged on the gospel, and have given particu-
lar answers to both sorts of cavils.

I go on now to the last proposal, which is to
explain the force of the apostle's argument
against shame in professing and preaching this
gospel, and to nuke it appear, that the words
of my text contain a general and most exten-
sive guard, or defence, against all possible oc-
casions of shame, in the profession of Christiani-
ty ; and that is, that the gospel of Christ is the

74 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

power of God for the salvation of all that be-
lieve.

Now this is an argument which you, who be-
lieve in Christ, may all assume to yourselves
as well as the apostle. You cannot preach this
gospel so well as he, nor explain the reasons of
your faith to others, and establish it upon so
solid and unshaken foundations of argument, as
Paul could do; but every Christian that has
embraced the faith, and felt the power of this
gospel for his own salvation, may give this
reason for his profession of it, and may support
his courage in opposition to all the sharpest
temptations of mockery and reproach.

When the apostle says, 'it is the power of God,'
we must suppose him to understand, it is a most
powerful means, or effectual instrument that
God uses, to save souls ; and it is attended with
divine power for that end.

It is more powerful than the light of nature ;
for we have no just reason to believe, that the
mere light of nature, without some helps of
divine revelation, or some unwritten traditions
of it, ever saved any souls at all ; and if there
have been any of the sinners of the heathen
nations made partakers of grace, I think it is
otherwise to be accounted for, than merely by
the poor remains of the light of nature.

OF THE GOSPEL. 75

It is more powerful than any religion that
men or angels could invent, and more powerful
too, than any religion that God himself ever in-
vented, or revealed, and proposed to men before
the gospel of Christ. His revelations to the
Partriarchs were but few ; they were made here
and there to a house or two, or to a family ;
they were particular favors that he bestowed
upon persons called out of idolatry; nor had
they a very long, nor spreading, nor lasting
influence, except in the family of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, where they were frequently
renewed.

It is more powerful than all the revelations
of grace, which God made by Moses to the
children of Israel, and intermingled with the
Jewish law ; for these discoveries reached, but
to one single nation, and wrought but feebly
toward the conversion of sinful souls to God
and holiness, in comparison of what the gospel
of Christ has done.

Besides, let it be considered that all the power
which all the former discoveries of grace to the
Partriarchs, or to the Jews, had to save souls,
was derived from the gospel of Christ, which is
contained in them, in lower measures, and in a
more obscure manner. Therefore, since the
gospel of Christ now stands forth in open light,

76

A RATIONAL DEFENCE

and in full glory, it is most eminently powerful
to convert sinners, to bring this apostate world
back again to God, and to save millions of souls.

I. It is the most powerful means of salvation
considered in itself, and in its own nature and
influence.

II. It is the most powerful means, as it is ac-
compained with the influence of the Holy Spirit.

The first of these may be called a moral or
persuasive influence ; the last is supernatural
and sovereign. Let us meditate on each of
these distinctly.

I. It is the most powerful means, if we consi-
der the gospel in itself, and its own nature. Not
that the mere word of the gospel, reaching the
ears of men, is sufficient to change the heart,
and to save the soul, without divine influences :
for it is said to be the power of God to salvation ;
i. e. it is that doctrine whereby God exerts his
Divine Power to save sinful man. But still it
must be granted, that the doctrine itself, in its
own nature, has a very great and evident ten-
dency to this glorious end, as it is the noblest,
the richest, and the brightest discovery of grace
that ever was made to man.

If we consider it in its own nature, it has the
greatest moral power, or persuasive influence,
toward the salvation of perishing sinners. Thi&

OF THE GOSPEL. 77

is easily proved by explaining what this salva-
tion means.

Salvation includes in it a freedom from the
guilt and punishment of sin, together with a
right and title to heaven ; it implies also a free-
dom from the power of sin, and thereby a pre-
paration for heaven, and a final possession of it.
Under each of these considerations it will appear
with great evidence, that the gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ is the power of God to salvation.

1st, It is the most powerful means to set sin-
ners free from the guilt and punishment of sin,
and to relieve a distressed conscience under the
sense of divine anger: it gives the most effec-
tual security to a believer against the terrors of
hell and eternal death ; for it not only declares
that there is forgiveness with God, but it shows
us the foundation upon which this forgiveness
stands ; namely, the satisfaction made to the
offended justice of God by the death and sacri-
fice of Jesus Christ, his Son. Suppose it were
possible for a philosopher or wise man, to prove
that God would forgive the sins of the penitent,
yet there is nothing but the gospel that can set
the conscience at such joyful ease from the
terror of guilt, and release the soul from the
chains wherewith it was held ; cFor now,' says-

the believer, ' I not only hear it proved by di-
g 2

78 A RATCONAL DEFENCE

viae testimony, that there is pardon of sin to be
obtained from God, but I see how God may do
it with honor. I behold the atonement that is
made by Christ Jesus, his own Son : the atone-
ment is equal to the offence. He can justify
me, though I am a sinner, upon the account of
this perfect righteousness, and he can do it with
glory to all his terrible perfections ; therefore, I
may venture my assent to this doctrine, and I
may rest my soul upon it.'

2dly, The gospel is a powerful means, also,
to raise undeserving sinners to a hope of hea-
ven and eternal life. It shows us what heaven
is, by the disco vories of one that has been
there, even the Son of God himself. Life and
immortality are brought to light by this gospeL,
which lay hid under much darkness before ;
% Tim. i. 10. It teaches us also how the happi-
ness of heaven is procured for us, even by the
obedience and blood of the Son of God; and
therefore, some think, heaven is called the pur*
chased possession in Ephes. i. 14. It assures
us, that this blessed state of the enjoyment of
God,, in unchangeable peace, and in the com^
pany of blessed spirits, waits for every believer*
when he is d slodged from this flesh, and when
the habitation of the body is no longer fit to re-
tain the spirit : and it reveals also the final hea-

OP THE GOSPEL.

79

veil of the saints, when the body shall be raised
into immortality. 'Without this gospel,' says
the soul, ■ I could have no just ground to hope
for heaven ; for all my best righteousnesses
are imperfect — my fairest acts of holiness have
many defects in them ; but I behold the per-
fect righteousness of my Saviour that has pro-
cured it. A life of holiness without defect, and
a most submissive obedienee to a painful and
shameful death, has been the price and pur-
chase of it.'

3dly, This gospel is a most powerful means
to subdue sin in the soul, to mortify corrupt
nature, to inspire us with virtue, to wean our
hearts from vice, sensuality and trifles, and
from all the insufficient pretences to blessed-
ness that the world can flatter us with.

The gospel of Christ, both in his own per-
sonal ministry of it, and in the writings of
his apostles, sets before us the most divine
scheme of morality, piety and virtue, that ever
the world knew. The sacred dictates of
probity and goodness toward men, as well as
the venerable rules of piety toward God, which
are scattered up and down in an impeded
and obscure manner among the philosophers,
and shine like a star here and there in the
midnight darkness of heathenism — these are

80 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

all collected and refined in the gospel of Christ,
and fill the Christian world with a pure and
universal light, like the sun unclouded in a
meridian sky. We know our duty infinitely
better from the instructions of Christ and St
Paul, than all the Plato's and the Plutarch's, all
the Zeno's and the Antonines of Greece or
Rome, could ever teach us.

The most divine- rules of the gospel are
attended also with the noblest motives to love
virtue, and to hate all vice ; for never was the
evil of sin so displayed to the eyes and senses of
man, as by the cross and gospel of our Lord Je-
sus Christ: never did sin appear so hateful, so
abominable, so justly the object of divine and
human harted, as when it appeared pressing
the soul of the Holy One of God into agonies
and sharp anguish. A believer who has seen
the evil of sin, as revealed in this gospel, will
hate it, and will be led powerfully to a conquest
over it.

P>esides, the terrors of hell are revaled to us
among the doctrines of Christian ty, as the just
punishment of sin, and that in such a manner
a9 no other religion pretends to : for, as the
doors of heaven are opened by our Lord Jesus
Christ, both by his ministry on earth, and by
his ascent into heaven, and by the farther dis-

OF THE GOSPEL. 81

coveries which his apostles have made of the
future unseen happy world, so the doors of hell
are opened too. Our Lord Jesus himself
preached hell and terror to sinners with a sa-
cred vehemence, and set everlasting fire in a
clearer and more dreadful light than ever had
been done by all the philosophers in the world.
The soul of every saint has been in some mea-
sure a witness of this truth, when it lay under
the work of divine conviction.

And not only the horrid nature and evil of sin,
and the dreanful consequences of it, are power-
ful motives to make us stand afar off, and fear
it; but 'the sweet and constraining influence
of the love of Christ does most effectually in-
cline me,' saith the believer, 'to hate every sin,
and to follow after universal holiness: shall I
build up again the things which my Saviour died
to destroy] This would be to make him suffer
agonies in vain, and run counter to all the de-
signs of his Weeding love, and the voluntary
sacrifice of his soul.

'I have also, the glorious and perfect example
of my blessed Lord. Never did virtue and re-
ligion shine so bright, and look so amiable as
in his life, and he has set it before me as my
pattern : I feel the attractive and divine power

82 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

of it. Where my Lord leads, I must follow ; for
I would fain be like him.

' He draws me by his example, and he draws
me too by his heavenly promises. He spreads
the glories and the joys of heaven before me,
to allure my hope — I see those sacred glories — I
long after the possession of these unfading joys,
and I must and will keep the path that leads to
paradise, that where my Lord is, I may be also.

'The rules and precepts of holiness, which
my Lord has taught me, are more pure, more
clean, more perfect, more divine and godlike,
than ever any other scheme of rules and duties
was ; arid the joyful and dreadful motives given
me to press after this holiness, are infinitely be-
yond all the motives that any doctrine or religion
has proposed. Blessed be God that I ever
learnt these holy rules, that I ever felt the
power of these divine motives, and am become
a lover of holiness.'

4thly, Thus the gospel prepares the saint
for heaven, and fits every power of his soul for
the business and belssedness of those happy
regions. 'Once,' says he, 'I had no delight
in spiritual things ; I had no relish of spiritual
pleasures ; but now I taste them with delight,
and I rejoice in the hopes of a sweeter and
more complete taste of them on high. Once

• OF THE GOSPEL. S3

I had no love to God — it is true, I feared him
as some unknown and extraordinary terror —
but I had no delight in him, no desire after him.
Now he is the object of my warmest love,
and of my sweetest meditations. Heaven
itself, as it is described in the word of God, was
not pleasant to me. What! The everlasting
continuance of a Sabbath ] Perpetual employ-
ments of worships and service to be done for
God everlastingly ? These are things that were
not agreeable to carnal nature , but bv the in-
fluence of this gospel of Christ, my heart is
new moulded, and I delight in the forethoughts
of such a heaven as the gospel describes.'
Such instances as these of the sweet efficacy
of the gospel upon the soul of man, turning it
into a divine temper, and fitting it forthe en-
joyment of God, are so many proofs of the
power of this gospel unto salvation, and so
many grounds and reasons why the believer
cannot be ashamed of it.

But I must add in the 5th place, it is the gos-
pel of Christ that brings believers to the final
possession of heaven. Then, and not till then,
is the salvation perfect. It is the gospel that
has given us an unchangeable promise of
heaven, when our state of trial is ended here
on earth, and Chiist is bound to fulfil it.

84 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

The gospel assures us, that when we are
absent from the body, we shall be present
with the Lord. When we see the heavens
open at the death of Stephen the first martyr,
and Jesus Christ standing there to receive
his departing spirit, we believe that the same
Jesus will fulfil the same kind office to us also,
and receive our spirits, if we have been found
faithful to the death.

The same gospel also gives us a more distant
hope and glorious assurance of the resurrec-
tion of our bodies from the prison of the grave.
When we behold the body of our Blessed
Saviour rising from the tomb, and ascending
to glory, and when we are told that his resurrec-
tion is a pledge and pattern of ours ; then with
a joyful' expectation we wait for the same
blessedness. The gospel lays an obligation
upon Christ himsejf to raise his saints from the
dead ; for he himself tells us, that it is the will
of his Father, that every one which seeth the
Son, and believeth on him, should have ever-
lasting life, and I will raise him up at the last
day ; John vi. 40.

Hence it comes to pass, that the believer
triumphs over death under the influence of
these hopes. « Now,' saith the saint, * 1 can
venture to die ; for my spirit shall be received

OF THE GOSPEL. 85

to dwell with my Saviour among the spirits of
the just that are made perfect. These feeble
and withering limbs of mine, I can cheerfully
commit them to dust and the grave ; for the
great trumpet must sound, the dead must arise,
my Redeemer will call my flesh from its dark
prison ; I shall arise to meet the Lord in the
air, and dwell with him for ever in unknown
worlds of blessedness.'

Thus I have shewn you the first thing I
proposed, Viz. how the gospel, in its own na-
ture, has a very proper and powerful tendency
in a moral or persuasive way towards the sal-
vation of the soul, as it insures pardoning grace
and final blessedness to believers.

II. I come now to show how the gospel
is made powerful to the* salvation of sinners
by the accompanying influence of the Spirit
of God, and this is supernatural and sovereign.
If I should run over all the particulars I have
just before mentioned, I might make it appear
in each of them, how the Spirit of God, by the
word of his gospel, works this salvation.

It is this Blessed Spirit that awakens the
stupid and thoughtless sinner to a sense of his
guilt and danger. It is He that shows him the
evil of sin, and makes him groan after deliver-
ance, and cry out, what shall I do to be slaved ?

86 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

And it is the Spirit that reveals and discovers
Christ Jesus to him as the only and all-sufficient
Saviour : it is He who shows the convinced
sinner that there is righteousness and grace
to be found in Christ to answer all his present
complaints and necessities. The word of the
gospel says these things indeed, but it is like
a dead letter, until the living Spirit speaks
them over again, and, as it were, constrains us
to hear the voice of encouragement and hope.
It is He that represents the death and suffer-
ings of the Son of God, as an effectual atone-
ment for sin, and makes the soul believe it, and
teaches us how to lay hold on this hope, to
fly to this refuge, to receive this atonement : it is
the Spirit of God that softens the hardest heart,
and melts it into godly sorrow : it is He who
makes us willing to accept of Jesus as a Prince
and a Saviour, to renew our sinful natures,
to refine our hearts, and thereby to reform
our lives ; it is he that takes the blood of Christ,
and applies it to a distressed conscience under
the guilt of sin, and thus gives the disquieted
soul rest and peace : He takes of the things of
Christ, and shows them unto us in all their
glory and sufficiency, for our salvation, and
thereby justly obtains the name of the para-
clete, that is, an advocate for Christ, and a

OF THE GOSPEL. 87

comforter to us; John xiv. 26, and xv. 26, and
xvi. 14, 15. He composes the ruffles of the
disturbed mind, and speaks all the waves of
the soul into a calm: he makes all within us
peaceful and easy, under the apprehension of
divine forgiveness through the merit of Christ.

It is only the Spirit of God that can make
the discoveries of heaven in the gospel effec-
tual, to awaken our hope and to raise our joy :
he shows us how it is purchased by the blood
of Christ, and that it is made sure to all those
that believe: he stamps his own Holy Image
upon us, and seals us up for the inheritance
of heaven; Ephes. i. 13. When ye heard the
word of thruth — the gospel of your salvation —
and believed it, ye were then sealed with the
Holv Spirit of promise, which is the earnest
of our inheritance. The spirit is sent into
our hearts as a spirit of adoption, whereby
we call God Father ; Gal. iv. 6. And he
changes us from children of wrath into the
sons and daughters of the living God; and
he himself dwelling in us is a pledge and
earnest of that inheritance, which is reserved
for us among the saints in light.

It is the same Blessed Spirit that makes the
gospel of Christ powerful, to mortify sin in us ;
for though the words of the gospel forbid

88 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

all iniquity, and require us to renounce the
lusts of the flesh and the vanities of the world*
if we belong to Christ: yet it is by the Spirit of
God alone that we are enabled to mortify the
deeds of the body, that we may obtain eternal
life: it is he that makes the commands of
Christ come with divine power and authority
upon the soul, and gives the motives of the
gospel power to persuade us : it is he that
renews our affections, makes us hate sin, and
love God superemely, and causes us to delight
in the spiritual pleasures of a future, unseen
world, which before, we treated with contempt,
or disregard. It is by the sanctification of the
Spirit, and the belief of the truth, that we are
prepared for the heavenly glory whereunto we
are Called by the gospel ; 2 Thess. ii. 13. And
since the Spirit of God is promised to dwell
in us for ever, John xiv. 16, 17, we have good
reason to believe he will be our eternal sanctl-
fier in heaven, and our eternal comforter.

There is such a thing as the influence
of the Spirit of God attending the gospel of
Christ. The apostle argues thus with the Ga^
latian Christans, received ye the spirit by the
works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
Gal. iii. 2. And it is the great promise of the gos-.
pel, or the new cov enant, that God would send

OF THE GOSPEL. 89

his Spirit to make it powerful for the blessed
ends for which he has designed it; Ezech.
xxxvi. 25, 26, 27. Joel ii. 28. Zach. xli. 10.
£sa. xliv. 3.

In the primitive days of Christianity, and
the age of miracles, the Holy Spirit attended
the preaching of the gospel with his extraordi-
nary -gifts of tongues, of healing, of prohecy,
as well as with the graces of conviction and
sanstiricati on and comfort: and the suddeness
and the glory of the change that was wrought
on sinners, carried with it an illustrious and
uncontested proof of the presence and power
of God arid his Spirit. Nor have some fainter
lblances of such glorious grace been
ether want! ig i:i later ages. There have
been some most remarkable instances of great
sinners converted at once by the gospel of
Christ, and the demonstration of the Spirit.

Hut in his more usual and ordinary commu-
nications of grace, He works so gentry upon
our natures, and in so sweet and connatural
a way, as not to distinguish his agency in a
sensible manner from the motions of our own
souls; for he never disturbs our rational pow-
ers, nor puts any violence upon the natural
faculties; yet when we are changed, when

we are renewed, when sin is mortified, the
h 2

90 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

scripture tells us, that it is the Spirit of God
that has done it : when our souls are prepared
for heaven, and our corrupted natures sancti-
fied and suited to the things that are prepared
in heaven for us, we are assured by the word
of God that the Holy Spirit has been the great
operator, and has wrought this change in us.

Thus I have made it appear at large, how
the gospel of Christ is the power of God, to
salvation. I apply myself immediately to raise
a few inferences from the subject I have been
treating of.

INFERENCES.

I. Inf. How unreasonable are all the re-
proaches that are cast upon this gospel ! A
gospel that saves mankind from misery, and
from sin, and eternal death ! A gospel that
teaches men how to appear before a holy and
terrible God with comfort, though their sins
are many, and their righteousness imperfect!
A gospel that gives the hope of pardon to cri-
minals and rebels, and the hope of heaven ta
undeserving creatures ! And all this upon such
solid grounds and foundations, as justifies its
highest promises and proposals to the reason of
men ! It is a gospel that changes our sinful na-
tures into holiness, and reforms our hearts as

OF THE GOSPEL. 91

well as lives ! A gospel, that aided by divine
power, creates souls anew, and raises dead sin-
ners to life ! It is a gospel that turns wolves
into lambs, and makes ravenous vultures meek
as doves ! A gospel that so disturbs the king-
dom of Satan, as to take thousands of slaves
and captives out of his dominions, to transfer
them into the glorious kingdom of Christ, and
make them cheerful and willing subjects ! A
gospel that fulfils gloriously the first promise,
and makes it appear, that the seed of the
woman hath broke the serpent's head, and de-
stroyed the works of the devil. You have never
seen, you have never known, you have never
learned this gospel aright, if you have not felt
it to be the power of God unto salvation. Those
that can speak evil of this gospel, it may be
universally said concerning them, they speak
evil of the things they know not; for if they
had known this gospel as they ought to know
it, they would have seen it all over glorious and
divine ; they would have felt it to be attended
with divine power to their salvation, and then
they would never speak evil of it.

The heathen world may be ashamed of their
doctrines and their religion ; the heathen wor-
shipperers may be ashamed of their sacrifices,
their superstitions, and their forms of devotion ;

92 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

for they have no power to save their souls : and
many of them were indeed brutish and shameful.
Mahomet, the founder of the Turkish religion,
may be ashamed of his Alcoran, a volume of
fables and incredible lies ; all his followers may
be ashamed of their prophet, and of the sensual
paradise that he promises them. The Jews
under the eye of Christ, and the sun-beams of
the gospel, may be ashamed of the vain tradi-
tions of their Rabbins, which were never divine;
and even of the old rites and ceremonies which
Moses gave them ; for all these are now but
weak and beggarly elements; the Spirit of God
calls them so; Gal, iv. 9. They have now no
power to save souls, since God hath abolished
them ; nor indeed had they ever any power but
what they borrowed from this gospel of Christ,
which lay concealed in them : but let none of
us that believe and profess the gospel of Christ
be ever ashamed of any of the doctrines, or
precepts, or promises of it ; for they are all
holy, they are all heavenly; all of them have
divine power accompanying them to lead souls
to salvation.

II. Inf. Learn hence the true method of ob-
taining Christian courage ; courage to profess
the gospel of Christ against all opposition ; it is
by getting it wrought into your heart: a d lives

OF THE GOSPEL. 93

by Christian experience, and not by learning a
mere form of words in a road of education and
catechism. You must feel it as the power of
God to your salvation, or you will never suffer
much for it. Let it be an ingrafted word able
to save vour souls, Jam. i. 21. and then it will
harden your faees against all blaspheming ad-
versaries, and the terrors of a persecuting world;
then you will be able to render a most powerful
reason why you are bold to profess this gospel,
and to answer every one that asks you a reason
of the hope that is in you : you will be able to
oppose those that set themselves against the
gospel of Christ, when you feel this divine spring
of courage within you.

I have encouraged you before, to acquaint
yourselves with reasons and arguments that
may defend your religion, and support your
faith : but hours of temptation may come, when
all the knowledge and learn ed furniture of your
head, all the arguments that are treasured up
in your memory, and all the reasonings that
your invention can supply you with, will hardly
be able to keep your faith and hope firm and
steadfast ; for Satan goes before you in skill and
rational argument ; and though your arguments
are strong and solid, yet he may baffle you by
his hellish sophistry, and thus cheat you of your

94 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

faith, and your hope, and your heaven, if you
have not got this gospel wrought into your
hearts with power, if you have not felt it to be
the power of God unto salvation.

Hence it comes to pass, that in times of great
temptation and persecution, there are many who
fall away, as the leaves of a tree in the blast of
autumn, when but here and there one stands
and endures the shock : it is because there are
so few of the professors of the gospel who have
felt it to be the power of God to the conversion of
their souls, and turning their hearts to God and
heaven.

And hence it comes to pass also, that several
unlearned Christians in all ages, that could not
argue much for the faith in a rational way, yet
could dare to die for it, because they had this
argument wrought in their own souls ; they had
felt a divine power going along with it to change
their natures, to make them new creatures, to
give them the hope of heaven, and a prepara-
tion for it.

III. Inf. From what you have heard of this
subject, learn the wide extent of this argument
for the defence of the gospel of Christ, and the
invaluable worth of it to every Christian, viz :
that the gospel is the power of God to your sal-
vation.

OF THE GOSPEL. 95

It is an argument of wide extent ; for it be-
longs to every Christian, to the wise and to the
unwise, to the weak and the strong ; there is no
sincere Christian, no true believer in Christ, but
hath got the foundation of this argument wrought
within him : he knows this gospel is divine, and
he should not be ashamed to believe and pro-
fess it ; for he hath felt it support his soul under
a sense of guilt, and give him solid hope of par-
doning grace : He hath found it change his sin-
ful nature, soften his heart into repentance, and
turn him from a sinner into a saint ; it hah laid
the foundation of eternal life within him.

And as it is an argument that belongs to
every true Christian, so it answers every ob-
jection that an infidel can bring against the
gospel, either from the doctrines, or from the
professors of it : and methinks, I would fain have
you all furnished with this glorious argument,
and learn to manage it for the defence of your
faith.

Do they tell you that the doctrines of the gos-
pel contain mysteries in them, and things that
are unsearchable 1 Do they endeavor to put you
out of countenance by ridiculing the truths of
Christianity, as being contrary to the common
opinions and reasonings of men ? Do. ty re-
proach them as foolish and unreasonable, and

96 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

do they endeavor to persuade you that they are
not sufficiently attested, and there is not ground
enough to give credit to them *? Though there
have been particular answers given to each of
these cavils in the first discourse ; yet you may
give this general and short reply to all of them,
and say, ' I am sure they are not contrary to
reason ; for they are divine. They are not ill*
credible, nor do they want sufficient evidence ;
for God himself, by his own Spirit, has borne wit-
ness to them in my heart ; He has Wrought an
almighty work there by the means of this gos-
pel : He has created me anew unto faith, and
hopes and holiness : He has turned my heart
from earth to heaven, and subdued the sinful
inclinationsof my nature by the precepts, by the
promises, by the glorious discoveries of this gos-
pel : He has made use of it to save my soul; and I
carry about me an uncontrollable proof that it
came from heaven.' Now, though this sort of
argument may have but little force in it some-
times for the conviction of the infidel, yet it is of
sufficient force to establish the believer.

But I proceed. Do they fill your ears with
the mean and contemptible character of the
professors of this gospel] Do they charge
many of them with vicious practices ? Do they
tell you of their different opinions, their contests

OF THE GOSPEL. 97

and their quarrels 1 And do they discourage
you by pointing to the apostates that have for-
saken the faith? You may defend yourself
and your profession against all these objections
by the same general argument, thus ; < Are the
professors of it some of the mean and base
things of this world ] But they are saints, and
this gospel has made them so; they are the
sons and daughters of the Most High God by
faith in this gospel; and I will not be ashamed
to reckon myself of their society, and to num-
ber myself amongst them. Are there many
that are called Christians, whose lives are vi-
cious 1 Surely, they never knew this gospel in
truth ; they are but false professors of it. —
There are thousands that can bear this witness
to the gospel, that it has changed their hearts;
it has renewed their natures ; it has made them
hate every vice, and their lives shine amongst
men glorious in holiness, and resembling God
himself. Are the sentiments of some of them
different from others 1 It is chiefly in points of
lesser importance ; but the substantial truths
of it, which are the power of God to salvation,
are professed and acknowledged by us all.
And though a thousand should forsake this gos-
pel, and become apostates, yet I can never part

i

98

A RATIONAL DEFENCE

with it, while I feel the blessed effects of it
abiding upon my heart, and I trust through the
grace of God, they shall abide forever.'
This leads me to the last Inference.
IV. Inf. What strong engagements is every
true Christian under to maintain the profession
of this gospel? Not only is he laid under many
obligations from the commands of God, and
the bonds of duty, and gratitude, and love, but
he has a constant pressing obligation within
him. ' How can I be ashamed of my hope, my
portion, my everlasting all? Shall I be ashamed
of that gospel, upon which my salvation is
founded, and my best and highest interest, even
my expectations of endless felicity ? If I let go
this faith, if I loose my hold of this gospel, I
let go my hold of Christ, of God, and his love ;
I let go my hold of heaven and all my happiness :
my sins all return upon me with their unsuffera-
ble loads of guilt and anguish of conscience, if
I loose my faith in this gospel; for all my hope
of pardon is built on this foundation : heaven
with ail the joys of it vanish from my soul, if I
part with this glorious gospel of Christ; and
death and hell face me with all their terrors.'

There is an awful and solemn motive derived
from the great judgment day to maintain the

OF THE GOSPEL. 99

profession of this glorious gospel ; for our Lord
himself has pronounced this threatening, and he
will fulfil it, 'whosoever shall be ashamed of
me and of my words amongst a sinful genera-
tion of men, I will also be ashamed of him before
my Father and his holy angels.' But this text
shall be the subject of some future discourses.

A RATIONAL DEFENCE OF THE GOSPEL:

COURAGE IN PROFESSING CHRISTIANITY.

Rom. i. 16.

The gospel of Christ, — it is the power of God
unto salvation to every one that believeth ; to the
Jew first, and also to the Greek.

Salvation is a frequent and familiar word in
the mouth of all who call themselves Christians.
It is a sort of asseveration or oath among the
looser and meaner part of mankind; as I hope
to be saved. But little do they know what
salvation means. All the notion they have of
it is this, that they would be saved from going
down to hell, a place of fire and torment, and
that they would go up to heaven when they die,
to some fine unknown shining places above the
skies, where they shall be free from all pain and
uneasiness. This is the utmost point to which
their idea reaches, and I think I have hit their
sense exactly in this description. Alas I Poor

OF THE GOSPEL. 101

ignorant creatures! They have no thought of
being saved from sin, of having their hearts
made holy, their sinful inclinations rectified,
their passions subdued or refined, their love
turned toward God and things spiritual, and their
desire and delight fixed upon things divine and
holy, instead of their sensual entertainments
of flesh and blood. They have no concern
about the pardon of the guilt of sin, and restora-
tion to the favor or image of God, and not so
much as a wish for the joys that arise from his
love, or from the blessed presence of our Lord
Jesus Christ in the world to come.

I have shewn you therefore, in the foregoing
discourse, what this salvation is, and made it
appear that the gospel is the power of God to
salvation; that is, it is a powerful means in
the hand of the Spirit of God to save us from
the guilt of sin, and to give us a right to heaven ;
to save us from the power of sin, to fit us for
the business and the joys of heaven, and ensure
to us the actual possession of it.

There are two things yet remain to be con-
sidered in discoursing on this subject.

I. The place or influence that faith, or believ-
ing, hath in this salvation ; for the gospel pro-
vides this blessing only for believers. It is
i 2

102 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

called the power of God to salvation to every-
one who believes.

II. The wide extent of this glorious benefit :
it belongs to every one that believes, whether
Greek, or Jew.

I shall treat of each of these particularly.

First, Since the gospel is the power of God to
the salvation of them that believe, let us in-
quire, what place or influence has our faith in
this sacred concernment !

To answer this, we may consider faith in its
various acts or degrees of exercise, as it begins
in this assent, as it proceeds to affiance, and as
it is completed in assurance ; and shew what
influence each of them hath in the work of
salvation.

1. An assent to the truths of the gospel must
begin the work of salvation in us : there must
be a belief and inward conviction of our sinful
and dangerous state, which is more clearly
revealed under the gospel, and that there is an
atonement made for sin by the blood of Christ :
we must believe, that there is forgiveness to be
found with God for the sake of this atonement ;
and that there is grace enough in our Lord Jesus
Christ, to renew our sinful natures, and to fit
us for heaven. This usually begets in the sin-
ner who is truly awakened some desire toward

OF THE GOSPEL. 103

this salvation, and some distant hope of obtain-
ing it. When the poor perishing creature be-
lieves and beholds the glorious influence of the
death and righteousness of Christ to justify a
sinner in the sight of God ; when he surveys
the love, the wisdom, the grace and the power
of Christ, answerable to all his wants, he then
comes to determine thus with himself, 'This sal-
vation is glorious and desirable ; the methods
proposed even for my own attainment of it, are
practicable and sufficient, and why should not
I apply myself to this Saviour, and seek this
unspeakable happiness ?'

2. Affiance or trust in Jesus Christ the Saviour,
is the next degree of faith. When we are wil-
ling to be delivered from the condemning guilt
of sin, and from the defiling power of it, and
have seen an all-sufficiency of atonement, grace
and power in Christ, then we commit our souls
into the hands of Jesus the Mediator, for this
blessed purpose, and make a solemn surrender
of our whole selves unto his charge and care,
that we may be pardoned for the sake of his
death, that we may be accepted of God through
his righteousness, that we may be sanctified
and made holy by his grace and spirit, and that
we may be fitted for and preserved to his hea-
venly kingdom. We reflect upon our past

104 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

iniquities, and mourn to think that we have been
rebels so long ; we are ashamed and grieved
for our rebellions, and we now most earnestly
desire to be made willing subjects to his holy
goverment ; and therefore we entrust our souls
with him, and beg that he would take us under
his care for this end, and bring us into the
Father's presence with comfort and joy. This
is the soul's coming to God by Jesus Christ.

Now su£h an act of faith, as this is, has some
sensible tendency to promote the peace of a
distressed conscience, the sanctification of a
sinful nature, the solid hope of heaven, and a
preparation for it. But still it must be acknow-
ledged, that its original and chief influence
arises from divine appointment. The gospel is
the power of God to salvation, and it is by
divine promise and power that faith saves the
soul. Such a faith, or trust in Christ, has all
the promises of gospel blessings belonging to it.
God has appointed in his word, and it is the
standing rule of the gospel, he that believes
shall be saved; Mark xvi. 15, 16.

All the parts of salvation come by faith :
justification, and favor in the sight of God ;
Rom. v. 1. Being justified by faith, we have
peace with God. Adoption comes also by faith ;
GaL iii. 2.6. Ye are the children of God by faith

OF THE GOSPEL. 105

in Christ Jesus. Sanctification is ascribed to
the same principle ; Act. xv. 19. The Gentiles
had their hearts purified from sin by faith. Joy
and hope come in this way also ; Rom. xv. 13.
The God of hope Jill yon with all joy and peace
in believing, that ye may abound in hope through
the power of the Holy Ghost. And you may read
several of these benefits of the gospel, these
divine ingredients of our salvation put together,
and all attributed to faith; Act. xxvi. 18. '/
send thee new to the Gentiles? saith the Lord
Jesus to St. Paul, * to open their eyes, to turn
them from darkness to light, and from the
power of Satan unto God, that they may receive
forgiveness of sinse and inheritance among
them which are sanctified, by faith that is in
me/

Faith, or affiance in Jesus Christ, is an accep-
tance of this salvation, it is a trust in the offered
grace, it is a dependance on the promises of
the gospel, confirmed by Christ, it is the sur-
render of a sinful soul to Jesus the Saviour, to
perform his whole work of grace for him and to
nim; and thereby the believing sinner, accord-
ing to the appointment of God in his gospel,
partakes of all the benefits that are treasured
up in Christ.

Faith in the gospel relieves the distressed

106 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

soul under a sense of the guilt of sin, and the
humble weary sinner finds mercy to forgive,
and strength to subdue it. Faith appropri-
ates and applies the blood of Christ, that sove-
reign medicine, to the wounds of a guilty con-
science, and the conscience finds ease and
refreshment. It applies the grace of Christ,
that powerful antidote, to expel the venom of
in-dwelling sin, and the soul is healed in some
measure, and the poison is expelled. It lays
hold on the power of Christ to assist in the per-
formance of every duty, and it obtains divine
assistance. Every true believer has experi-
enced something of these benefits, by a sincere
surrender of himself to Christ in such a way of
trust and holy dependance.

Can the thirsty soul taste of the running
water, and not find refreshment, since God,
who created water, has ordained it to refresh
the thirsty 1 Can weary limbs lie down on a
bed, and not finJ ease, since a bed is made to
give ease and rest to the weary 1 Can a faint-
ing creature drink a divine cordial appointed to
give life, and yet feel no revival? No more
can a guilty, distressed, and penitent sinner
believe the truths of the gospel, and trust in
Jesus the Saviour, and yet find no relief: for
this is the will and settled law of the God of

OF THE GOSPEL. 107

heaven, that peace and holiness shall be ob-
tained this way.

3. When faith grows up to assurance, it ap-
proaches toward complete salvation. Then the
Christian can say, ' I know I have believed on
the Son of God, I know I enjoy his favor.9
Then the holiness and the joy increase, for the
salvation enters into the soul in fuller measures :
the nearer faith arises to assurance of our own
interest in the grace of Christ, the more it sup-
ports the soul, the more it comforts, the more it
sanctifies, and the more evidently doth the gos-
pel appear to be divinely powerful to save us
from sin and hell.

c Can I believe God has pardoned me, so vile a
rebel, and forgiven me so many and aggravated
offences, and yet is it possible I should not love
him, and rejoice? Can I be assured he. loves
me, and not make him a return of my highest
and warmest love] Can I believe that Christ
the Son of God died for me, and shall I not con-
secrate myself and all the powers of my nature
to him, that I may live devoted to his service?
He has bought me with a price, a dear and
valuable price, that of his own blood, and I
must glorify him with my body, and with my
soul, which are his; 1 Cor. vi. 20. Can I
believe that I am redeemed from hell and de-

108 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

struction, and shall I dare to walk in the road
that leads to it? and not rather run with pa-
tience and joy the race that is set before me,
until I arrive at the gates of heaven? Am I
not assured that Jesus the beloved of God, suf-
fered death for my sins, and shall not I hate sin,
which caused his suffering? Sin, which was the
occasion of his agonies, and the very sting of
his sorrows! I am crucified and dead to sin
and to this world by my union with a crucified
Saviour; yet I live, saith the divine apostle, and
the life that I now live in the flesh I live by the
faith of the Son of God, who hath loved me, and
gave himself for me; Gal. ii. 20. How is it
possible that I should hope to be made like
Christ in glory, with a full assurance of arriving
thither, and not purify myself as he is pure 1
1 John iii. 2, 3. While I believe and am persuad-
ed that the promise of the joys of heaven shall
be fulfilled to me, I would awaken myself hourly
to the joyful prospect, and be ever preparing
for the possession of that blessedness. '

Thus when faith rises to a sublime and emi-
nent degree in this world, the believer may be
said to rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of
glory, and to receive the end of his faith, even
the salvation of his soul; 1 Pet. i. 8, 9.

OF THE GOSPEL. 109

Before I pass to the second head, I desire
leave to make these few remarks.

Remark I. Though the first degree of faith
or assent to the gospel be necessary to salva-
tion, yet it is not of itself sufficient ; and though
the last degree of faith or assurance be glori-
ously useful in this work, yet it is not absolutely
necessary.

A mere assent to the truths of the gospel is
not sufficient to save ; for there are many who
by the force of education, or by the force of
argument, yield their assent to the doctrine,
and believe it to be true ; yet it is a cold, feeble,
languid assent ; it begins and ends in the head,
and never reaches the heart; it does not awaken
them thoroughly, nor make them long after the
pardon and the grace promised :.they seWm* w:
sit still, contented with the forms of their' cate-
chism, and a general belief of the Christian
religion, so far as they know it ; but are under
no painful solicitude, or concern of soul, about
the forgiveness of their sins, the sanctification
of their natures, their interest in the favor of
God and eternal happiness ; and therefore they
proceed no farther ; they never heartily apply
themselves to Jesus Christ the only Saviour,
and they fall short of the blessing. The devils

1 10 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

believe as much as they do, but are in a state
of damnation still

Again, consider that a full assurance of our
own interest in the favor of God through Jesus
Christ, is the highest degree of attainment on
earth ; but it is not necessary to the being
of Christianity, nor doth it belong to every
Christian. It is true indeed, that every one
ought to seek after it by the frequent exercise
of faith and love, and every grace, thus bright-
nign the evidences of his saving interest in the
blessings of the gospel daily ; and where assu-
rance is obtained upon solid grounds, holiness
and joy will rise by swiit degrees, and the soul
will make glorious advances towards the hea-
venly state and complete salvation : but some
Christians scarce ever arrive at this attainment
al(l&e^adays..

$J£cej/therefor£ a mere assent to the gospel
in general is not sufficient for salvation, and a
full assurance of our own interest is not neces-
sary, it follows, that an affiance or trust in Christ
as a Saviour, is the most essential and important
act of faith. This is that sacred and appointed
duty of a convi ced soul, whereby it is made
partaker of the blessings of salvation according
to the gospel, hit be practised in the way which
I have just before described.

OF THE GOSPEL. Ill

Remark II. Take notice here of the diffe-
rence between the law and the gospel, between
the covenant of works and the covenant of grace.
The one gives us life upon our working, the
other saves us from death, and givr s us a right
to heaven upon our believing1. Therefore one
is called the law of works, and the other the law
of faith ; Rom. iii. 27.

It is proper here to observe, that the scrip-
ture sometimes speaks of two covenants ; the
old and the new : and means chiefly the oecono-
my or dispensation of the Jews under Moses,
and the ceconomy of Christ, or the dispensation
of the gospel since the Messiah came. But by
the two covenants I now speak of, I would be
understood to mean the law or constitution of
innocency, and the constitution of grace.

By the constitution, or law of innocency, man
was to have obtained eternal life before his fall;
and as this law or covenant was given to Adam
as the head and representative of all mankind, so
every son and daughter of Adam continues un-
der it, until they accept of the covenant of grace,
or the offers of the gospel, either in the darker
or brighter discoveries of it : and therefore all
mankind, Jews and Gentiles, are laid under
condemnation by it in the writings of St. Paul,
in the second and third chapters to the Romans.

U2 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

By this law of works every mouth is stopped,
and the whole world is become guilty before
God; Rom. iii. 19. Though the nations of the
Jews and Christians, and perhaps the greatest
part of the heathen world have had some reve-
lations of the gospel or covenant of grace, and
have been under the outward offers of it ; yet
Jews, Heathens, and National Christians, are all
under the sentence of the covenant or law of
works, until they enter into the covenant of
grace by repentance and faith in the mercy
of God.

But the covenant of grace, or the gospel, is a
new constitution, which God hath ordained for
the relief of poor, fallen, miserable man, con-
demned and perishing under the curse of the
law of works. It is a constitution of grace,
whereby alone fallen sinners can obtain salva-
tion.

The law of works demands universal obedi-
ence to all the commands of God, obedience
perfect and persevering: for this is the lan-
guage of it; the man that doth them, shall live
in them; Rom. x. 5. and it curses every sinner
without hope or remedy ; cursed is every one
that continueth not in all things that are written
in the book of the law to do them ; Gal iii. 10,
1 %. But the voice of the gospel, the righteous •

OP THE GOSPEL. 113

ness of faith, or the way of justification by Christ,
speaketh on this wise ; with the heart, man
believelh unto right eousness, and with the mouth
confession is made unto salvation ; for the just
shall live by faith ; Rom. x. 10. Gal. ii. 11.
The one proclaims eternal life to all that per-
fectly obey, the other publishes salvation to all
that believe, though their obedience be very
imperfect.

I grant indeed, that the apostle cites these
descriptions of the law of works out of the books
of Moses, and therefore some persons would
suppose him only to mean the particular law
given to the Jews at Mount Sinai, and not
the general covenant of works made with Adam
and with all mankind in him.

But to this I give these two answers.

1. Answ. The law of works, which the apostle
speaks of in the epistle to the Romans, particu-
larly in the second and third chapters, cannot
signify merely the Jewish law ; for it is such a
law as includes all the heathen world, as appears
plain; Ro*m. ii. 14. 15. and by which the hea-
thens as well as the Jews were cosdemned,
and could never be justified ; Rom. iii. 20. By
the deeds of the law shale no flesh be justified in
his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin ;
therefore this must be a law that extended to all

K 2

114 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

mankind, since it stops every mouth, and pro-
claims the whole world guilty before God.

2. Answ. The law given to the Jews, or the
covenant of Sinai, so far as it is purely political,
was indeed a covenant of works; and their
continuance in, or rejection out of the land of
Canaan, depended upon their own works, their
obedience or disobedience to this law, as is
often expressed in the writings of Moses : and
upon this account it is used sometimes by the
apostle as a very proper emblem or representa-
tive of the covenant of works made with our
first father Adam, who was to have enjoyed or
forfeited some earthly or heavenly paradise,
according to his obedience or disodedience. It
is plain then, that though St. Paul may cite the
law of Moses to show the nature of a law of
works in general, yet it does not follow that he
means only the law or covenant of Sinai ; and
it is as plain, by his including the Gentiles under
it, that he does not mean the law of Sinai, but
the original law or covenant of works made
with all mankind in Adam, their fathef and their
head, and of which the law of Sinai was a proper
emblem or figure.

All laws of works therefore are insufficient for
the salvation of sinful man, and his resortation to
God's favor and image, and eternal life. The

OF THE GOSPEL. 115

law of Sinai was a law of works, promising an
earthly Canaan to the obedient Jews. The law
of innocency in Eden was a law of works, pro-
mising life and immortality to obedient mankind.
But they have been both wretchedly broken ;
man was turned out of Paradise, and the Jews
out of Canaan, because of disobedience. But
now the gospel, whereby the Jews or Gentiles
are to be saved, or to obtain eternal life, re-
quires faith in the mercy and promises of God
in and through Jesus Christ-; and by this means
it saves us, though our obedience be far short
of perfection. This was the way whereby the
Jews themselves were saved under the Old
Testament; for the gospel was preached to
them as well as unto us ; Heb. iv. 2 ; though it
was in darker hints and types, and figures. And
in this way were Abraham and David justified,
as the apostle teaches; Rom. iv. 3, 4, 5, 6.

Though the Jews enjoyment of the land of
Canaan depended on their good works and
obedience to the Law of Moses, yet their hope
and enjoyment of heaven depended on then-
faith or trust in the mercy of God, which was to
be farther revealed in the days of the Messiah.
And it is the same gospel by which we are to
obtain salvation, since Christ is come in the
flesh ; but with this difference, that we are now

\{Q A RATIONAL DEFENCE

more expressly required to make Jesus Christ
the object of our faith, and we have a thousand
clearer discoveries of his righteousness and
grace than ever the Jews were favored with.

Happy mankind ! though fallen and ruined in
Adam, yet recovered and raised to rightousness.
grace and glory by Jesus Christ. How dread-
ful is that law which pronounces a curse and
death upon every transgressor ! Tribulation
and wrath, indignation and anguish, upon every
soul-than doth evil, to the Jewjirst, and also to
the Gentile; Rom. ii. 9. But how sweet and
reviving is the grace of that gospel, which
becomes the power of God to the salvation of
every one that believes, to the Jew first and
also to the Greek !

The great and blessed God saw the frailty of
his creature man, how ready he was to ruin
himself under a law of woi ks ; therefore he has
appointed his recovery by a law of faith. And
what the law could i ot do, in that it was weak
through the infirmity of our flesh, that he has
sent his own Son Jesus Christ in the likeness of
sinful flesh, to do for us, to fulfil all the demands
of the law both in the penalty and the precept,
to finish transgression, to make an end of sin by
his own sufferings, and to brh g in an everlast-
ing righteousness, that whosoever believes on

OP THE GOSPEL. 1 17

and condescending are thy ways to the children
of men ! how full of compassion to rebels, who
had destroyed themselves! how gentle are the
methods of thy recovering mercy! if we will
but confess our sin? mourn over our own follies,
return to the Lord ou God, by humble repent-
ance, and put our trust in an Almighty Saviour,
there is peace and pardon, there is grace, and
iife, and glory provided for us, and laid up in the
hands of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Remark III. Though the gospel offers us sal-
vation by faith and not by works, yet it effec-
tually secures the practice of holiness, since
holiness is a part of that salvation. We are
saved from sin as well as from hell, by this
gospel ; and we must have our souls prepared
for heaven, as well as brought to the possession
of it. He that pretends to trust in Christ for a
deliverance from hell, and has no desire to be
made holy, he has no desire after such a salva-
tion as Christ proposes in his gospel, nor is he
like to attain it.

We must be sensible then of the corruption
of our natures, the perverseness of our wills,
the vanity of our minds, the earthliness of our
affections, cur inability to do that which is good
him should be saved. Blessed God ! how kind

118 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

for time to come, as well as our guilt, condem-
nation and misery, because of our transgressions
past : we must desire that a thorough work oi
repentance may be wrought in our hearts, that
the power and reign of si i maybe broken there,
and that we may beco ne new creatures as
well as desire to es.^ipe the wrath of God, ar.d
hell, and eternal death, if ever we would be
partakers of that salvation which the gospel
proposes. Christ will not divide one part of his
salvation from the other: and in vain do we
presume to trust in him for happiness, if we are
not willing to be made holy too.

How false and unreasonable are all the re-
proaches that are cast upon the doctrine of
salvation by faith, as thougn it tended to pro-
mote looseness of life, and to indulge iniquity;
when that very salvation includes in it a freedom
from the power of sin, and a delight in all that
is holy] Tnis is the very character of Christ
our Saviour, and the reason of his name Jesus,
that he shall save his people from their sins ;
Matth. i. 21. If we are delivered by Christ, it is
from this present wicked world ; Gal. i. 4. If
we are redeemed, it is from all i.:iquily, that we
might be a peculiar people, purified to himself,
zealous of good works; Tit. ii. 14.

Remark IV. Though the gospel is such u

OF THE GOSPEL. 1 1 i*

glorious doctrine of grace, that there is no rea-
son to be ashamed of it, yet since it saves us by
faith, and not by works, theie is no reason for
us to boast when we are saved. \\ e may glory
indeed in the Cross of Christ, and make our
boast in the Redeemer ail tne day long ; but the
gospel for ever cuts off all ground of boasting in
ourselves. Here the justice and mercy of God
shine forth gloriously ; here the righteousness
of God is declared, sinners find remission or
pardon, God is just and a justifier of him
who believeth id Jesus. Where is boasting-
then ? It is excluded. By what law ! Of works ?
Nay; but by the law of faith; Rom. hi. 25, 26,
27. By grace ye are saved through faith, and
that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God ; not
of works, lest any mau should boast; Eph. ii
3, 9.

The gospel concurs with the law in this re-
spect, that it shows us our own guilt and vileness
our ruin and our impotence to restore ourselves,
and therefore it has put all our help upon
another. God has laid <>vr help upon one that
is mighty to save ; Psal. lxxxix. 19; and he has
ordained that the way whereby we should
derive this salvation, is by renouncing all depen-
dence upon self, and trusting in Christ and
grace for all that w e enjoy and hope for. Thi5*

120 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

is the business of faith ; this is the very nature
of that Christian virtue, to disclaim all self-suffi-
ciency, and receive all from mere mercy; and
therefore it is appointed to be the means of our
justification under the gospel ; therefore it is
said so often in scripture, that we are justified
by faith, that divine grace may have all the
glory ; Rom. iv. 1 6 Therefore it is of faith that
it might be of grace. We are ignorant and
foolish, and must derive wisdom from Christ:
we are guilty, and must receive righteousness
from him; we are unholy, he is the spring of
our sanctification ; we are captives ands laves
to sin and Satan, and we must have redemption
from him : He is made of God to us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption,
that no flesh might glory in his presence ; but
he that glories, must glory in the Lord; 1 Cor.
i. 29, 30.

Man, innocent man, had power and righteous-
ness, and life put into his own hands; but the
first Adam grew vain in his self-sufficiency, and
he foolishly sinned and lost it all : therefore God,
in order to our recovery, would put power and
righteosness, and life into the hands of another,
even his own Son, the second Adam, that we
might go out of ourselves, and seek it all from
another hand. Now faith, or trust, is the proper

OF THE GOSPEL, 121

act of the soul, to express our own emptiness,
and our dependence on another for all.

This is the language of faitn, < Lord I am a
sinful and guilty creature ; I have no righteous-
ness, no merit to recommend me to thy favor ;
I have no power to change my unholy nature,
and rectify the criminal disorders of my soul ;
I am unable to subdue the sins that dwell in me,
or to practice the required duties of holiness ; I
deserve condemnation and death, and I am by
nature walking in the way to hell : helpless and
hopeless forever in myself, but in thy rich
grace is all my hope : I rejoice in the discove-
ries of thy mercy; I come at the call of thy gospel,
upon the bending knees of my soul I accept of
the proposals of thy grace ; I give up myself to
thy power and mercy, as it is revealed in Jesus
Christ, thy Son, that I may be saved from sin
and hell. To me belongs nothing but shame
and confusion of face : I renounce forever all
self-sufficiency, and if ever I am saved, thy grace
shall have all the glory.' Now when a poor
humbled sinner is brought thus far, and receives
the salvation of God in this lowly posture of soul,
the great God has obtained a good part of his
designs in the gospel upon him; self is humbled,
grace is glorified, and the sinner is saved by
faith.

\ZZ A RATIONAL DEFENCE

Remark V. Heaven is made up of believers-
The whole number of the saved were once sin-
ners, and obtained salvation by faith.

The holy angels indeed never sinned, and
yet whether their confirmed state of holiness
and glory is not secured to them by trust, or
dependance on Christ, may be a reasonable
inquiry ; for all things in heaven and earth are
said to be gathered together, and reconciled in
him; Ephes. i. 10. Col. i. 20. But this we are
sure of, that not one of all the race of Adam
hath been restored to the love of God, or raised
to heaven, by their own works, but all by faith.
It is sovereign and glorious grace that has saved
them all, and that by the gospel too, in the va-
rious editions of it, from the promise in Eden
until the full discovery of grace at the days of
Pentecost after the ascension of Christ.

O it is a pleasing entertainment of soul to
send our thoughts forward to the last great
day, or to send them upward to the courts of j
heaven and glory,, and to hear how the millions
of redeemed sinners shout and sing to the -
honor of divine grace ! How all that happy world
of believers assist the melody, and dwell upon
the delightful sound. 'Not unto us, O God our
Father, not unto us, but to thine own name,
and to thy mercy be all our honors paid through

OF THE GOSPEL. 123

the ages of eternity. We were a race of guilty
and perishing rebels, who had sinned against
thy majesty, and ruined our own souls: we lay
upon the borders of death and hell without help
and without hope: we could do nothing to pro-
cure thy love, nor merit aiy this g by the best
of our works: but thou hasi called us to believe
thy gospel, to trust in thy grace, to lay down
the arms of our rebellion, and to receive the
blessings of salvation by faith: we have nothing
to boast of, for we are mere receivers : thou
hast put forth thine almighty arm, and hast
made thy gospel the instrument of thy power to
save us; and while we feel and taste the com-
plete salvation, thy power and thy mercy shall
have all the praise.

6 Not unto us, O Lord Jesus our Saviour, not
unto us, is any honor due ; but to thy conde-
scending love; to thy compassion and death
shall our honors be paid, and our acknowledg-
ments made for ever. We saw ourselves help-
less, and were directed to thee for help : we
trusted in thee,. and thou hast saved us; it is
thy sufferings that have procured our pardon;
it is by faith in thy blood we find an atonement;
it is through thy righteousness that we are
justified and accepted of God, and made parta-
kers of these heavenly glories that shine all

124 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

around us. All our sacred comforts, our excel-
lencies, and our joys are thine. Pride is hidden
from our eyes for ever, and boasting is banished
from all our tongues: it.is thou hast fulfilled the
law ; it is thou hast suffered the curse ; it is thou
hast purchased, and promised, and bestowed
the blessing. We believed thy word, we re-
ceived thy grace, and behold, we dying sinners
are raised to life, and advanced to glory. There
is not a soul of us but delights to join in those
sublime anthems of worship; worthy is the Lamb
that was slain to receive power, and riches,
and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory,
and blessing : blessing, and honor, and glory,
and power be to him that sits upon the thronev
and to the Lamb forever. Amen

A RATIONAL DEFENCE OF THE GOSPEL:
OR,

COURAGE IN PROFESSING CHRISTIANITY.

Rom. i. 16.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ :
for it is th>> power of God unto salvation, to
every one that believeth ; to the J eic firsthand
also to the Greek.

We have seen the gospel of Christ vindicated
in the former discourses on this text, and the
glorious doctrines of it guarded against the vari-
ous reproaches of an unbelieving world : we
have heard what a powerful instrument it is in
the hand of God for the salvation of perishing sin-
ners : we have been taught the way to partake
of this salvation, and that is by believing; and
we have learnt what influence our faith has in this
sacred concernment. I proceed now to the last
thing which I proposed, and that is to show the
wide extent of this blessing of the gospel ; for
it brings salvation to every one that believes, to

the Jew first, and also to the Greek,
l2

126 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

Where the word Greek is used in opposition
to the Barbarian, as it is in the fourteenth verse
before my text, it signifies the learned part
of mankind, as distinguished from those that
are unlearned ; the Greeks being the most
famous among the nations for wisdom, know-
ledge, or learning in that day : but when this
same word stands in opposition to the Jew, as it
does here in my text, then it includes all the
heathen world ; so that when the apostle says,
the gospel brings salvation both to the Jew and
the Greek, he shows the extent of this benefit
to all mankind that hear and receive it.

It may be worth our while to spend a few hints
upon the order in which the apostle represents
the communication of this blessing, viz : to the
Jew first, and then to the Greek or Gentile.

When he describes in the second chapter of
this epistle the terms or conditions of the cove-
nant of works, he sets mankind in the same
order; he pronounces indignation and wrath
upon every soul that doth evil, of the Jew first,
and also of the Gentile ; but glory, honor and
peace to every man that worketh good, to the
Jew first, and also to the Gentile. So when he
declares the blessings of the covenant of grace or
the gospel, he brings the salvation first upon the
Jews, and then upon the Gentile nations : and

OF THE GOSPEL. 12?

one reason of it may be this, that the Jews having
been favored with an earlier and more express
discovery of the nature and will of God than the
heathens, they seem to stand fairest for the
participation of divine blessing ; and that, even
by the law of works, if life and righteousness
could have been obtained by it, as well as by
the covenant of grace, or law of faith. But if
they abuse their knowledge,- and their sacred
advantages, to the neglect of God and godliness,
faith and works, they justly fall under a more
severe condemnation every way, because their
guilt is greater.

But there may be some special reasons given,
why God thought it proper in the course of his
providence to send the notice of this salvation
by Jesus Christ among the Jews, before he sent
it to the Gentile world.

I. The Jews were the chosen people of God,
the sons and daughters of Abraham, his friend,
the first favorites of heaven considered as a
family and a nation ; and as he first preached to
them the purity and perfections of his law,
whence they might discover their own sin and
misery, so he published his gospel of grace by
Jesus Christ first among them, and sent his son
with the messages of peace and forgiveness
first to'their nation. The great Goa thought it

128 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

becoming his equity to publish his abounding
mercy first toward them, amongst whom he first
published his law, to show them their guilt and
misery through the abounding of sin. By the
law is the knowledge of sin ; and where sin has
abounded, grace has much more abounded,
Rom. 3. and 5.

II. The Jews had this same gospel preached
to them many ages before in types and emblems,,
in sacred ceremonies and dark prophecies. Now
it was fit, that the types and prophecies should
be explained, and the grace contained therein
revealed first to them ; for hereby the gospel
obtained a great confirmation, and established
its own truth, when it appeared in all the parts
of it so exactly answerable to the ancient figures,
and to the predictions of many hundred years.
It was fit that the Messiah should appear among
them first, where his character and picture had
been drawn for many ages before, that so he
might be known and distinguished whensoever
he should visit the world It was fit that his
doctrine should be first published in plain lan-
guage, where it had been long written and
spoken in metaphors. Thus the gospel went
forth first from Jerusalem, that it might be
preached and proclaimed with more glorious
evidence among the rest of the nations.

OF THE GOSPEL. 129

III. Jesus Christ, who is the subject and sub-
stance of the gospel, was himself a Jew, of the
seed of Abraham, of the nation of Israel. He
was born, he lived, he died amongst them. All
the great affairs of his birth, his life, his ministry,
his death and resurrection, were transacted in
their country, and in the midst of them. It was
fit the benefit thereof should be first offered to
them.

If this gospel of Christ had been first preached
to the Gentiles, while it was kept silent and
secret amongst the Jews, there might have been
reason to suspect that there was some fraud or
falsehood at the bottom, and that this doctrine
would not bear the light in the country where
these things were done, and that it would not
stand the test of examination in the land of
Judea, and therefore the story was told first
among strangers : and thus the Gentiles might
have found some difficulty to receive it, and been
prejudiced against the belief of it. But now,
when it is published through all the land of
Israel, and the apostles appeal to their own
countrymen for the truth of these *ra sactions ;
when it has stood the test of public examination
there, where the things were transacted, it goes
forth to the rest of the nations with brighter
evidence and glory.

130 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

IV. I might add, in the last place, That it was
lit it should be first published to the Jews, who
seemd to have the first claim to it; that since
they refused it, it might be offered to the poor
Gentile nations with greater justice and equity,
even the Jews themselves being judges. Such
are the frequent hints given by St. Paul ; Acts
xiii. 46. It was necessary that the word of God
should have been first spoken to you; but seeing
ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unwor-
thy of everlasting life, In, we turn to the Gen-
tiles. Be it kn ion, therefore, unto you, that the
salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and
they will hear it; Acts xxviii. 28.

When we think of that poor unhappy nation,
the Jews, scattered abroad among all the king-
doms of the earth, banished from their own pro-
mised land for their rejection of Christ, and yet
hardened in their unbelief, methinks we should
send out a groan of pity for them; for they are
the sons and daughters of Abraham, the first fa-
vorites of our God. Jesus our Saviour was their
Messiah, their kinsman, and their rightful King.
We should send up a kind wish to heaven upon
their account, " How long, O Lord, how long
shall Israel be cast off] How long wilt thou be
;mgry with the children of Abraham, thy friend?
When shall the day come for the opening of their

OF THE GOSPEL. 131

eyes, that they may look on Jesus whom they
pierced, and believe and mourn ? When shall
the veil be taken off from their hearts, that they
may read the name of Christ in the books of
Moses, and trust in Jesus of Nazareth, whom
their fathers crucified ?"

When we see one and another of the Jewish
nation in this great city, and think of their
blindness and their zeal for the idle traditions of
their teachers, and observe their ignorant rage
against our blessed Saviour; when we behold
the vain superstitious of their worship, the thick
darkness that hangs upon them under the
brightest beams of gospel-light, and their wide
distance from salvation, we should let our eyes
affect our hearts, and drop a tear of compassion
upon their souls. " These were they to whom
the promises of salvation did first belong, and to
whom the first news was brought that Jesus the
Saviour is born. These are they to whom the
gospel was first preached. God himself dwelt
in the midst of them, and the Son of God was
their brother, their flesh and their blood.
Though they are for a season cast off for their
infidelity, yet God has told us, that he has a
secret love for that nation still, for their father
Abraham's sake, Rom. xi. 28. and this love
shall break forth in its full glory one day. Make

132 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

haste, O deliverer, who didst come out of Zion.
make haste to fulfil thy promises, and turn away
ungodliness from Jacob. Let the fulness of the
Gentiles be brought in, and let all Israel be
saved. Bring them back from all the lands
whither thine anger hath scattered them. Re-
lease thy ancient people from their long captivi-
ty to Satan, and their bands of thick darkness.
Be thou, O Jesus, who art the light of the Gen-
tiles, be thou also the glory of thy people Israel.

But I would endeavor to make a larger im-
provement of this general head of discourse.

Does the gospel bring salvation to every one
that believes without exception ; to all ranks
and characters, and degrees, and orders of men ?
then let this grace be spread far abroad : and
let not the more polite and nicer hearers grow
tired, or drowsy, or disdainful, while I amplify a
little and diffuse my thoughts into various parti-
culars, pointing out the variety of the subjects
of this grace ; for I would (as it were) mention
every sinner by name, that they may not be left
only to unaffecting general notions, but being
specially addressed to, they may all come and
partake of this salvation by believing this gospel. ,

A glorious and extensive gospel indeed, and
a wide-spreading salvation ! To every one who
believes ! None excluded from this blessing.

OP THE GOSPEL. 133

1. It is not confined to one nation, or one fami
iy, not to one tribe or kindred of mankind, as
the law of Moses was. Go preach the gospel,
says our Lord, to every creature ; Mark xvi. 16,
Preach repentance and remission of sins in my
name among all nations, beginning at Jerusa-
lem ; Luk. xxiv. 47. To the Jew first, but let not
this grace be confined to them: publish this
blessed doctrine also to the sinners among the
Greeks and Gentiles. You that are afar off
from God, even in the ends of the earth, ye
are called to look unto Christ, and be saved ;
Isa. xlv. 22. It is no matter, oh sinner ! what
thy father was, or what thy kindred are ! if thou
art but a believer in Christ, thy soul is happy, thy
sins are pardoned, the gospel is the power of
God to thy salvation.

2. It is not confined to one sex only, or to'one
age. The children are called as well as the
fathers, and men and woman are invited to par-
take of this blessing together in Christ. There
is neither male nor female, neither young noi
old, neither Greek nor Jew, that have any
distinction put upon them, to exclude them
from this grace ; they are all one in Christ
Jesus ; Gal. iii. 28. Children, have you seen the
evil of your sins, and the danger of hell] Do you
long for pardoning and saving grace, and are

M

134 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

you willing that Christ should make your peace
with God, that he should enable you to serve
him on earth, and prepare you for heaven?
Come then, trust in this gospel, give up your-
selves to Jesus Christ the Saviour, in the manner
I have spoken, and the salvation is yours. Nor
let old sinners thrust away this mercy from
tlxem, under a pretence that they have long
abused it. You are now under the joyful sound
of the gospel ; you sit now under the language
of inviting love; are you willing to be made new
creatures before you die, and to accept of a deli-
verance from hell, though you are upon the
very borders of it 1 Behold power enough in this
gospel to deliver you : the blood of Christ can
wash out stains of the longest continuance ; the
spirit of Christ can change the skin of an old
Ethiopian, and create an old inveterate trans-
gressor into holiness. This gospel could save
the thief upon the cross, and ensure paradise
to him. It can rescue a dying rebel from eter-
nal death, for it gives life and salvation to every
one that believes.

3. It is not limited to one rank or condition of
men in the civil life, but reaches to persons of
every circumstance. The rich and the poor,
the master and the servant, the prince and the
peasant, must partake of salvation by the same

OF THE GOSPEL* 135

faith in the Son of God. The Barbarian and the
Scythian, who seem to be born for slaves, and
the Romans who are lords of the earth, the
bond and the free, have all an equal call to re-
ceive this salvation ; Col. lii. xi. Ye are all rich
enough to obtain it : there is no purchase of
these blessings by any other price but that of
the blood of Jesus. Silver and gold, and the
treasure of kings are all contemptible offers in
so sacred a concernment as this is. The benefit
is too valuable to be bought at any meaner rate :
Christ who paid for it, will bestow it freely on all.
If the rich will receive it, they must come with-
out money, and without price, and accept of the
free gift of God, as humble petitioners at his
footstool ; and the poor that have no money,
come ye and buy; Isa. iv. 1, 2. Let the vilest,
meanest creature come to this treasury of grace,
and with thankfulness receive the salvation, for
it is bought already. You are called only to trust
in this gospel, to surrender yourselves to this
Saviour, and the salvation shall be yours. Ye
that are mean and low and base in this world,
there are many of your brethren already joined
in the fellowship of this gospel : come, enter
yourselves into the blessed fraternity. To the
poor the gospel is preached, and the poor receive
it. But there are some noble, there are some

136 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

great, there are some rich, that have felt the
power of it too : there is Philemon the master,
and his servant Onesimus, joined in the same
faith, and partakers of the same salvation ;
Philem. 16.

Again, 4thly, it is not confined to the persons
whose intellectual excellencies are superior to
their neighbors, or who exceed others in under-
standing and the acquirements of the mind. St,
Paul was debtor both to the wise and the unwise ;
to the learned Greek, and to the ignorant and
unpolished Barbarian; Rom. i. 14. He preached
the gospel to all of them, for Christ had a chosen
number amongst them all. If the witty, and the
wise and learned, will lay down their pride, and
submit to the doctrine of Christ crucified, and
not call it foolishness : if they all humble their
understandings to receive the sacred mysteries
of our religion, God, manifest in the flesh, and
put to death for the sins of men, and will place
the concerns of their eternal welfare into the
hands of him who hung bleeding upon the cross ;
if they are willing to be converted, and become
as little children, there is a door for them to enter
into the kingdom of heaven. And as for you,
whose understandings are weak and unpolished
with human learning, this is a doctrine and a
gospel exactly fitted for your character : it is

OF THE GOSPEL. 1 37

no business of great sagacity, no ingenious
matter to become a Christian. Believe the
truths that are plainly revealed concerning your
own sin and misery, and the power of Jesus
Christ to save you, bewail your own wretched-
ness and guilt, and intrust yourselves in the
arms of his grace, that ye be made holy and
happy, and ye also shall become possessors of
the same kingdom. Father, I thank thee, Lord of
heaven and earth, that though these things may
be hidden from the wise and the prudent yet thou
hast revealed them to babes ; Matt. xi. 25, 26.

But I pursue the distributions of this grace yet
farther.

5. No particular tempers or constitutions of
men, no different qualities of soul or body, can
exclude those that believe, from the grace or
blessings of this gospel. Let not the strong man
glory in his strength, nor the comely figures of
human nature boast themselves in their beauty.
Let not the weak be overwhelmed with des-
pair, nor the deformed or uncomely stand afar
off and abandon their hopes ; the same Saviour
proposes the riches of his grace to all. Learn
therefore to look upon all your natural advan-
tages, and all your natural discouragements, with
a negligent eye in the matter of your salvation.

If vou would-be strong to win heaven, vou must
m 2

13S A RATIONAL DEFENCE

borrow ail your strength from Christ and the
gospel. If you would appear comely and ho-
norable before the face of God, you must be
clothed in the robe of righteousness and the
garments of Salvation, which he has prepared ;
Isa. lxi. 10.

Nor can any difference in the natural qualities
of the soul forbid any person who believes in
Christ to hope for this Salvation. Those who
are by nature proud or peevish, sullen or pas-
sionate, angry and revengeful, have been made
partakers of this grace, as well as those who by
the complexion of their animal frame, and the
original temper of their minds, have had more
of the natural virtues belonging to them ; such
as gentleness, meekness of spirit, good humor
and kindness. Those who have something in
their very frame that is sly and crafty, or cove-
tous, wanton and intemperate, have felt the
power of this gospel, as well as those that have
been generous and sincere, modest, chaste and
abstemious ; for the grace of the gospel, which
was typified by the ark of Noah, takes in all
manner of animals, clean and unclean, and saves
them from the deluge, of divine wrath that shall
come upon an ungodly workl. But there is this
blessed difference, that the brute.s went out of the
ark with the same nature they brought in ; but

OF THE GOSPEL. 139

those who come under the protection and power
of this gospel by faith, they are in some measure
changed, they are refined, they are sanctified :
the wolf that came in is turning into a iamb, and
the raven by degrees becomes a dove ; surely,
the gospel has begun to make them so, for it
has begun their salvation.

I will grant indeed, that the perverse temper
of blood and spirits, and the very make of the
man as to his natural vicious qualities, is seldom,
entirely altered by the grace of God here on
earth. There will be some sallies of animal
nature, some out breakings of the irregular fire
that is pent up in the constitution; and these will
too often mix themselves with our conduct, and
interline our acts of virtue and duty. But the
holy soul, who believes in Christ, will be humble,
will mourn, will accuse and chide itself before
God in secret, and will be importunate and rest-
less in prayer for the victory. The Christian
will not suffer himself to be carried away willingly
by the stream of vicious inclination; for he that
is born of God sinneth not ; 1 John v. 18. and it is
in vain to talk of the gospel and salvation, of
faith and grace, if we give up the reins to vicious
nature, and bid a careless farewell to any one
virtue.

But to proceed yet farther in reckoning up the

140 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

various characters of men, whom the gospel
makes Christians by the grace of faith.

6. As no persons are excluded because of their
national constitution, so neither are any forbid
the blessing of salvation because of their former
ill characters in the moral life. Not the greatest
of sinners are shut out from this blessing, if they
repent and believe the gospel. Not the Jews.,
who crucified the Lord of glory : not the Gen-
tiles or Greeks, who were slaves to superstition
and idolatry, and drenched in most infamous and
abominable practices ; the Greeks, who gave
themselves up to workuncleanness with greedi-
ness, without God, and without hope in the world.
One gospel has saved them all. No former fol-
lies or faults, no, not the greatest of sins against
man, or against God himself, ought to shut up a
humble soul under despair ; for this is a faithful
saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus
Christ came to save the chief of sinners; 1 Tim.
i. 15. And that is a word of most extensive
grace which our Saviour speaks ; Matth. xii. 31.
All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be for-
given unto men.

You who have enjoyed a happy education, and
had pious parents to boast of, as the Jews boasted
of Abraham; you who have many shining works
of sobriety and righteousness, you are called to

OF THE GOSPEL. 141

come and trust in this gospel : but you must re-
nounce all your pretended merit, and accept ot
pardoning grace, or you can never be saved,
And you that have nothing that looks like a
good work to glory in. sinners as bad as the
worst of Gentiles, come and believe this gospel,
and surrender yourselves to Jesus the Prince
and the Saviour ; his blood is all-sufficient for the
pardon of your sins, his righteousness i3 all-
sufficient for your justification ; and his spirit
can purify your sinful natures. Where sin has
abounded, grace has much more abounded ;
Rom. v. 20. It is to the everlasting honor of the
gospel of Christ, that it has appeared to be the
power of God to the salvation of multitudes of
such as you : such were some of you, saith the
apostle to the Corinthians, but ye are washed,
but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the
name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our
God; 1 Cor. vi. 11.

And surely, if great degrees of sin cannot ex-
clude the penitent soul from the benefit of the
gospel, then 7thly, neither shall any person be
excluded because of the weak degrees of his
faith: him that is weak in the faith receive ye,
for Christ has received him : Rom. xiv. i. 3,
Read that kind condescending promise, and be-
lieve it ; Matth. xii. 20. He will not break tfc

142 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

buised reed, nor quench the smoking flax, nor
suppress nor despise the least, the lowest desire
of grace. He will encourage the youngest and
feeblestacts of sincere repentance and true faith
though struggling under much sin and darkness,
until it break out into evident and active flame.
The little tender seed of grace under his heaven-
ly influences shall bud and blossom, and spring-
up into full glory. How large and glorious is the
salvation that attends faith in this gospel ! How
extensive is the grace of God our Saviour! How
unsearchable are the riches of his mercy ! O the
heights and the depths, the lengths and breadths
of the love of Christ, that pass all knowledge !
None of the sons or daughters of Adam, the
sinner, are excluded from this salvation, where
the gospel is preached, but those who exclude
themselves by stubbornness and unbelief. Per-
sons of every kind, every character, condition
and quality, amongst men, have found this
gospel become the power of God to their salva-
tion, when they fled to the refuge and believed
in this Saviour.

What improvement now shall I make of the
last part of this discourse, this wide extent of
salvation bestowed on all who believe 1 Has
every single believer this salvation in some
measure conferred on him, and wrought in him ?

OF THE GOSFEL. 143

Then here is a plain and evident test, whereby
to try our faith, or a certain sign whereby we
may judge, whether we are t;ue belivers, or no,
The gospel is the manifestation of the power
of God for the salvation of every one that be-
lieves. What have you found of this salvation
begun in you? What have you felt of your own
guilt and wretchedness by reason of sin, and of
your danger of eternal death] Have you seen
the death of Christ as an effectual atonement to
procure the forgiveness of an offended God?
Have you beheld the power and grace of Christ
sufficient to renew your sinful natures, and to
form them after the image of God in righteous-
ness and true holiness ? Have you found your
conscience resting upon the sacrifice of Christ,
and your souls humbly expecting pardon and
peace there? Are your hearts turned away
from every sin? Is the temper of your mind
made divine and havenly, and suited to tire
business and blessedness of the upper world ?
This is the salvation of Christ which the gospel
proposes, and bestows upon all that believe.

Upon such solemn inquiries as these, I am
persuaded there is many a soul must take up
this heavy complaint, " Alas ! I fear I am no
believer : I have sat long under the sound of the
gospel, and I have heard the doctrine of Christ

144 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

crucified many years to no purpose ; for I have
never found this gospel attended with any such
powerful impressions as to begin salvation in
me. I have been too thoughtless about the
guilt of my sins, and about the forgiveness of
them in the court of heaven. Nor have I found
my sinful nature changed, nor " my affections
sanctified. I have very little of these spiritual
desires and delights which have been before
described as part of my salvation. I feel the in-
ward workings of my soul vain and carnal still ;
I am not prepared for the heavenly world, and
surely then I have never truly believed in Christ,
nor received his gospel."

To such complaints as these, I would propose
these three several answers.

Answer I. It may be so indeed. All this
complaint may be just and true ; and perhaps
thou art an unbeliever still, dead in trespasses
and sins, and exposed every moment to the
stroke of death, and to everlasting misery. This
is the case of many a thousand beside thyself:
even the greatest part of those who are called
Christians, are afar off from God and from sal-
vation, and have no just ground to suppose that
they are believers in Christ. But it is of infinite
concern for thee, O sinner, to busy thyself about
this inquiry. There is not any one act in thy

OF THE GOSPEL. 145

life, in which thou canst be engaged, that is of
greater and more awful importance than this,
for thy heaven or thy hell depends upon it.

Some sit all their days .under the gospel, and
hear nothing but the outward sound, always
unmoved, unawakened and unaffected; slum-
bering and nodding upon the borders of eternal
fire ; while others hear the voice of the Son of
God, arise from the dead, and receive a new, a
divine life. Some in the same family, perhaps
of thy own kindred, thy fl< sh and blood, or some
that are upon the same seat in the public assem-
bly, are convinced and converted, believe in
Christ, andare saved; while thou remainestahard
and impenitentsinner under the voice of thesame
grace, and the preaching of the same salvation.
And if this be thy case, it is a dreadful one
indeed. Consider, how will thy condemnation
be aggravated, that thou hast heard the gospel
published with so much glorious evidence, in
such a land, and such an age of light as this is,
and yet thou abidest in the state of impenitence,
and unbelief, and death. Thou hast had the
blessings of heaven offered at thy door, and hast
hitherto refused to receive them. Tfcou hast
sat, as it were, on the banks of the river of life,
and never desired to taste the living water.
Thou hast dwelt near the shadow of the tree of
life, but art an utter stranger to the fruit. O !

N

146 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

with what a stupid and a careless ear hast thou
heard the things of thy everlasting peace?
Think of it therefore, and be horribly afraid: if
the gospel be not powerful for the salvation of
thy soul, it will become, through thy own im-
penitence, a powerful means to increase thy
damnation, to make thy hell hotter, and thy
eternal sorrows more intolerable. Wo to thee,
Capernaum; wo to thee, Bethsaida; wo unto
you, O sinners of Great Britain, ye have been
exalted to heaven in divine favors, and ye shall
be thrust down to hell if ye continue in unbelief.
It shall be more tolerable in the day of Judg-
ment for Sodom and Gomorrah, than for you ;
Matth. xi. 21.

But art thou indeed yet an unbeliever ? Yet
sleeping the sleep of death 1 It may be this is
thy awakening time : it may be this is the hour
when thou shalt begin to hear the voice of God
in order to life. Q, cherish such important
thoughts as these. Let them arise with thee in
the morning, let them lie down at night with
thee, and give thyself no rest, nor give rest to
the God of heaven, nor to Jesus Christ the Sa-
viour, tiH he has received thy soul into the arms
of his love, forgiven thy sins, and made thee a
new creature, that the gospel may not be to
thy soul the savor of eternal death.

Ansiv. II. But perhaps the person who makes

OP THE GOSPEL. 14?

this complaint, may be some humble melancholy
Christian, some sincere believer in Christ, and
yet under dark and timorous apprehensions con-
cerning his own state. It may be, poor tremb-
ling soul, that thou hast found the preaching of
the gospel to be the power of God to thy salva-
tion, though thou art not able rightly to evidence
it to thy own conscience.

Thou hast not the joy of pardon indeed, but
hast thou not some glimmering hopes'? Surely
thou dost not abandon thyself to utter despair.
Thou hast not assurance that Christ has accept-
ed of thee ; but art thou not sincerely willing to
surrender thyself to him, to receive his complete
salvation in the holiness as well as the happiness
of it] Dost thou not long to be pardoned and ac-
cepted of God, for the sake of his death and obedi-
ence 1 And art thou not heartily desirous to give
him all the honor of thy salvation ] Thou hast
not much power against sin, but dost thou not
hate it with immortal hatred, and esteem it thy
constant enemy ? Does it not often cause thee
to mourn before the Lord because of thy captive
state, and the working of indwelling iniquities ?
Perhaps thou dost not yet feel thyself to be
manifestly saved from sin, but art thou not saved
from the love of sin % It dwells in thy flesh, it
may be, and raises tumults there, but not in thy

f 48 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

desire and thy delight. Canst thou not say with
the apostle ; Rom. vii. 23, 24. There is a law in
my members warring against the law of my
mind? But it is a daily torment to me, O wretch-
ed man that I am ! who shall deliver me? Thou
dost not love God, it may be, according to thy
wish and desire ; but is there any thing which
thou valuest.more than God and his love ? Art
thou not truly willing to love him above all things,
to be renewed and sanctified in all the powers
of thy nature, to be fitted for the business of
heaven, and suited to the blessedness ?

If thy heart can echo to this sort of language,
and the grace of God has prevailed thus far. in
thee, then thy salvation is begun; the gospel
has shown its divine power upon thee, and thou
art indeed to be numbered among the believers.
Jinsw. III. But I would conclude my discourse
with a word that may have equal respect to
saints or sinners. If you are concerned sincerely
about your eternal welfare, but can see no com-
fortable evidences in yourselves of the work of
faith or the beginnings of salvation, if all within
you appear to be gu It and sin, and there is much
of hell and darkness in the soul, yet do not cast
away all hope : arise and come to Jesus the
Saviour, behold he calleth you. This is the
reason of the grace of the gospel, this is the

OF THE GOSPEL. 149

accepted time, this is the day of salvation. Make
haste now to the city of refuge, fly now to the
hope that is set before you.

The promises are held open to thee, O soul!
whosoever thou art, even the promises of light
and life, of grace and eternal glory. Christ
Jesus invites thee by the messengers of his
gospel : if there be some darkness upon thy
spirit, do not spend all thy time in laborious and
fruitless inquiries whether thou hast heretofore
believed in Christ, or no; but come now with an
humble sense of thy guilty and sinful cricum-
starices, and surrender thyself to his charge and
care by a new act of faith, or trust ordependance.
Plead with him to accept a vile criminal over-
loaded with guilt and misery, and to make thee
accepted with God by a righteousness which
was not thy own. Beseech him to look with
pity on thy unholy soul, to sanctify and renew it,
to take thy hard heart into his hand, and soften
it into repentance. Plead with him, and say,
Lord, art not thou exalted to give repentance
as well as remission ] Intreat of him to subdue
thy sins, to new-mould and create all the powers
of thy nature in the beauties of holiness, and to
prepare thee for the heavenly state. Go and
complain humbly at his mercy -seat, how long
thou hast "sat under the ministrv of his own

150 A RATIONAL DEFENCE

i

gospel, and felt no divine power attending it
Intrust thy soul now to his care, and place thy-
self by faith under his divine influences. He
that comes in this manner, shall in no wise be
cast out, for the Lord has promised to receive
him ; John vi. 37. Wait on him with daily im-
portunity, follow all the means of grace which
he hath appointed, and the gospel of Christ shall
appear in due time to be the power of God, even
thv God to thy salvation. Amen.

THE END.

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